


Too Useful To Waste.

by LittleMewLugia (Lugianna)



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-08 05:53:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15924224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lugianna/pseuds/LittleMewLugia
Summary: Text in bold type indicates com-speak. Italicised sentences are Dissonance's memories.I see Dissonance as being around Frenzy-sized in this fic.





	1. Chapter 1

Too Useful To Waste.

Summary: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons know how resourceful and inventive Sam Witwicky was. When Soundwave finds him dying after a battle, he wonders if he has a way to save Sam so his skills are not lost.

Warnings: Character death, minor blood and gore.

Rating: M for safety.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount. I make no claim to the contrary.

 

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter One.

 

It was after the battle that Sam Witwicky was found, broken and dying, and it was Soundwave who found him.

 

The Autobots had shielded him on the ground during the fighting, covering all ground routes into his location, but it was Sam's bad luck that Starscream had been looking for an opportunity, and seen one. All the Autobots, and Sam himself, were concentrating on the ground troops, temporarily underestimating the threat from the air.

It was the last time Sam would make _that_ mistake.

 

Starscream had stooped down, like the bird of prey his alt-form was named for, but he was in robot form, not in plane form. His hands had lashed out and scooped up the human before anyone even realised what he was doing, and he pulled out of the steep dive, heading up and away with incredible agility and frightening speed.

 

Starscream was impatient to rejoin the battle, he was not interested in taking prisoners at this point, and he figured there was no point in keeping the boy or allowing him to live. He figured that gravity would take care of his squishy victim, and dropped him, making sure there was a sufficiently long drop onto an abandoned parking lot. Then, without further ado, he rejoined the fray.

 

Sam had not died immediately on impact, but he was dying when Soundwave found him. Soundwave thought that the human could have had valuable information, and wished Starscream had thought this through before dropping him like that.

He engaged his scans, in case his initial suspicion had been incorrect, but no, the boy was deeply unconscious, his life signs slowing and becoming more erratic. Soundwave had scanned enough humans since arriving to know what was normal and not normal for humans.

However, even he checked twice when he found something that was definitely not normal for humans.

 

It had to be the boy's contact with the AllSpark during its destruction, he surmised. That had caused the human's heart to be infused with Spark energy. The AllSpark energy within him was not strong enough to generate a new body for him, but the protospark was instinctively trying to coalesce into a Spark, maybe in hope of going into the heart itself, as if it were an organic Spark chamber.

That meant there was a chance that the human's life and skills and knowledge need not be wasted after all.

 

Soundwave's hands were composed of an incredible assortment of interchangeable tools – like a Swiss army knife, but infinitely more versatile. Extruding the two tools he needed – one from each index finger- he used the sharp scalpel to slit the human's body open from neck to groin. Sam was too far gone to be aware of it, even when Soundwave cut away his ribs and the musculature around them.

 

Sam had merely minutes, if not seconds to live.

 

There it was, the Spark energy glittering over Sam's quivering, still-beating heart. Soundwave touched his probe to it, turned on the current. The Spark energy was drawn to the electrified rod, drawn up it to the bulb at the top, where it coalesced into a Spark.

Soundwave was relieved; Sam's body had not been strong enough for the energy to have the time to do this itself, Soundwave had merely speeded it up, but he had worried that he'd arrived too late, and that the energy might have started to dissipate as Sam's body had begun to die. That seemed to be an invalid concern, he noted, as the last of the Spark energy joined the small but hot and very bright spark in the bulb. Soundwave activated the force-field to keep it from dissipating and turned off the current.

He lifted the bulb, no longer interested in the body of Sam next to him, which was now inert, the heart had stopped beating. Reaching into his chest compartment he searched for and located an empty cassette. He manipulated it into robot form, found it to be a non-flier, triggered the opening of the chest plates. He lowered the probe till it was touching the Spark chamber, released the force field, and activated a negative current. Drawn by the current and by the Spark's own survival instinct, the Spark shot down the probe and entered the Spark chamber with a small sizzling noise.

 

The new Casseticon twitched slightly, but Soundwave closed its chest plates and folded it back into cassette form. As a blank, it had had no energy stores, so would need to recharge before it could online. How the boy - or to be more exact, the Spark that had formed from the energy in his chest -would react on finding out the manner of his saving, assuming he remembered anything, Soundwave could not predict, but what mattered is that he had been saved. Any potential his new Spark might possess had not been wasted.

His sharp audios detected something approaching, and the vibration frequency told him that they were Autobots. Folding into his SUV form, he accelerated away with his prize.

Soundwave knew the vibration frequencies of the Autobot's voices, too, so when he picked up the sound of the agonised keen a few minutes later, Soundwave knew that it was Bumblebee who had found Sam's physical remains.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Text in bold type indicates com-speak. Italicised sentences are Dissonance's memories.
> 
> I see Dissonance as being around Frenzy-sized in this fic.

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Two.

 

 

 

One year later.

 

**Dissonance has been deployed.**

 

The com was from Mirage, but at his announcement, every Autobot on the battlefield closed off their external audios and turned off their sensors. Of course, it left them at a disadvantage, they would not hear incoming fire or pick up someone sneaking up behind them, but when Dissonance was out, both sides shut down their external pickups.

Dissonance was a relatively new Cassetticon, first encountered three months previously. The small blue and yellow mech looked fairly harmless at first, but of course the Autobots were not fooled by the new mech's appearance. As suspected, it soon became apparent that this mech was not at all harmless when a hatch slid back on its abdomen and extruded the muzzle of a laser cannon.

Of course, the cannon's positioning did restrict where the mech could aim, but they had quickly found out that Dissonance had more than just the cannon as a weapon. The mech had not yet approached close enough to engage anyone in a melee fight, but at one point it headed towards the frontlines of the battle, and turned its back. A few of the Autobots, recalling the incident later, recalled seeing that Dissonance's back resembled the broadcasting end of a large speaker.

After that, the only clear detail anyone recalled was the sensor-blinding, circuit-rattling, sonic shriek that had pierced the air. No-one had stopped to think that the new mech might have a sonic weapon, but considering that he was a new Cassetticon, linked to Soundwave, who's very _name_ suggested his specialisation, maybe they should have.

 

Then the Decepticons had renewed their attack.

 

At the end of the day, they had managed to hold their positions until Starscream, under fire from Ironhide, had shrieked a retreat. The price of victory had been high, however: most of the Autobots sustained some major injury, and Cliffjumper was almost permanently offlined. Only some quick work by Ratchet had saved him, for Cliffjumper had discovered the hard way that Dissonance possessed wrist blades and armour-piercing hand-spikes.

After that battle, nobody ever underestimated Dissonance again. Hand-to hand with the homicidal mech was avoided where possible, and the moment he was seen, audio and sensor pickups were cut, and communications carried out via com only. So the battle continued, with the Autobots' only advantage being their greater numbers.

 

More members of both factions had arrived – and a few more were expected - on Earth, but it seemed more Autobots than Decepticons had answered their respective leader's calls. Judging by how many of the missing Decepticons had been staunch Megatron-supporters, it was thought that their absence was likely to be due to a dislike of the current Decepticon leadership. It was still a mystery why Soundwave, once one of Megatron's right-hand mechs, had answered Starscream's call, and Soundwave himself certainly wasn't telling.

 

As he battled on, Bumblebee saw a flicker of movement from his optic corner, and turned, bracing his feet and raising his free arm to defend himself. His Spark flickered as he saw who his opponent was, and he turned his audios back on - it was unlikely Dissonance would use his sonic weapon at this point.

For the small blue and yellow mech before him was unmistakably Dissonance, blades and spikes out in readiness, abdominal cannon pointed directly at Bumblebee's chest.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Fighting, dodging… Dissonance's short life had been composed of much of this. When he dreamed in recharge, he often dreamed of his combat training, or of actual battles, but at times he dreamed of inexplicable things. Disjointed images came to him, not just the experiences stored in his processors, but images or sounds that he could find no associated memories of, no explanation for. These were as hard to hang onto as smoke, dissipating as he came out of recharge, but a few were recurring, and those he could recall more easily.

Oh, he knew who most of the people in the images were, one had to know the enemy, after all. The yellow mech was Bumblebee, the squishy femme Mikaela Banes, the red and blue mech the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. It was the context of the images that was puzzling to Dissonance.

He could recall, for example, looking at Mikaela Banes as if she were slightly smaller than him, rather than almost a foot taller. He could recall being held in the hand of Optimus Prime, of looking into the round optics of Autobot Bumblebee, and of running through the streets of a squishy city with the AllSpark clutched under an arm.

 

This was all very curious. He'd never met Mikaela Banes, nor had he yet come close enough to the Autobot leader or the yellow scout to even fire at them with any chance of hitting them. These memories made no sense. It was the same with the last memory. To Dissonance's knowledge, he had never even seen the AllSpark, much less run with it under his arm, but then again, Dissonance's first clear memories were of being called forth from Soundwave's chest, first to get used to his surroundings, and later to train in readiness for combat.

Dissonance dealt with these strange ‘memories’ as best he could, which usually involved not worrying about them, because he knew from experience that dwelling on them tended to make no difference. It didn't bring clarity or understanding, or help him remember more. Only upon awaking from recharging did he allow himself to briefly think about them before filing them under 'unexplained' and getting on with his job.

So these were the last thing on Dissonance's mind as he danced to the discordant beat of the battle, firing, slashing, stabbing with his spikes. For all that it was not choreographed, the dance was complicated and required the mech's full attention, lest he make a fatal misstep.

Bodies moved and shifted about him as he dodged and weaved between them, avoiding friend and attacking foe. A gap, a flash of yellow, and Dissonance moved in, aiming his cannon at the yellow mech who was side-on to him. As the Autobot detected his presence and turned, he adjusted his cannon to point at its chest. At this distance, he could not possibly miss.

 

Its blue optics focused on him, and he paused as another series of disjointed images suddenly flashed from seemingly nowhere. None of them bar the last were combat situations, many of them were close-up to his point of view.

Bumblebee fought Barricade as he stood next to Mikaela Banes, watching…Bumblebee and four of the Autobots stood round him and Mikaela in an alley, Bumblebee dancing as his speakers played 'Check out the rep, second to none'…standing in a room in a squishy house as two squishies not on the 'Autobot sympathisers' list demanded to know who he was talking to and what the light Ratchet had shone in the window was…an explosion, as Starscream's bombs had hit, and then struggling through the debris towards him…

All thoughts of combat left him as he blurted out in perfectly understandable English "Oh God, Bee!"

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

As the yellow and blue mech blurted out this statement, it was Bumblebee who froze. The statement stunned him. He had heard 'Oh Primus', 'oh Unicron', 'By the AllSpark', 'by the Dark God' 'By the Great Maker' and 'By the Unmaker' before, and many variations around those themes, but this was the first time he'd heard anyone of the Cybertronian race used the human term 'god' in that context. It was an expression he associated exclusively with humans.

Combined with the shortening of his name that again he'd only ever heard used by humans - and one in particular - the phrase seemed out of place coming from a mech, particularly one of a faction that despised non-Cybertronian forms of life.

Belatedly Bumblebee snapped his focus back to the battle - he was still being threatened by a Decepticon that had proven itself to be a match for a mech his size - but he needn't have worried, for with a blur of movement, Dissonance pulled back, whirled away, and was gone.

For a moment, Bumblebee was stunned into inactivity by the unusual actions, then a laser blast sizzling by his audio brought him back to the present.

Turning, he aimed his own cannon at the Decepticon that had sneaked up behind him.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Dissonance froze, assailed by images that suggested that this Autobot was a dear friend, images accompanied by emotions that suggested the same, and at that moment, Dissonance knew he could not attack the yellow scout, even though he was in an ideal position to do so. It wasn't as if there was any shortage of enemies, he'd just go for one of them instead.

Leaping back into the fray, away from the yellow scout, he dodged and twisted until he was able to attack a small green mech who was distracting some of their forces with holograms.

When the retreat was called soon after, Dissonance was perfectly happy to scramble back into his Creator's chest panel next to the other Cassetticons and recharge. In recharge he would be less confused.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Soundwave was aware of the turmoil in his newest charge though the mental link he had with them all. He wasn't particularly surprised, it was a well-known fact that certain memories associated with strong emotion could leave an echo-memory in the Spark. Coming face-to-face with someone associated with that memory-echo was bound to confuse Dissonance, but it was something Soundwave hoped would be overcome over time.

 

If it didn't…well Soundwave would not worry yet about something that may not even come to pass. If it did, he would deal with it then.


	3. Chapter 3

Too Useful To Waste.

 

Chapter Three.

 

Bumblebee sat in his room after the battle, and as he did every day, took Sam's hooded top out of his subspace and held it against his metal cheek.

Sam had taken it off just before the battle, carelessly tossed it over a chair as he'd been warm. When the battle had begun, Sam had not hesitated to insist he went along in case he was needed for something.

"Very well," Optimus had agreed, seeing that an argument would only slow things up. "But you stay behind the lines of battle, and you wear this so you can hear if we need you to move quickly," Optimus had said, taking a headset from a cabinet where human equipment for Lennox and any other humans was kept.

Sam had nodded, and put it on, and Bumblebee had taken him to close by the site of the battle.

 

In this battle, Bumblebee had had orders to stand in one of the roads that led to where Sam was standing. "It's my world and I want to be here in case there's something I can do," Sam had confided in his yellow friend, who had nodded. Bumblebee had felt the same way back on Cybertron, he had wanted to fight despite his youth, he had wanted to be involved. The difference here was that Sam was far smaller, more fragile, and without any weapons that would make a difference.

The restrictions must have chafed, Bumblebee knew, and he had wondered if he could ask Lennox or someone else who was sympathetic if Sam could get some basic Army training. If he could be trained to use a rocket launcher, or some sort of missile, he could actually fight without being in too much danger. It was something Bumblebee _had_ planned to speak to both Sam and Optimus about after the battle, but of course Starscream's sneak attack had put an end to Sam.

 

Bumblebee rubbed the top against his cheek, remembered how it had felt to have Sam stand on his hand and lean against his face while stroking the sensors on top of his head. Bumblebee didn't want to think about how he had found Sam. Hadn't killing him been enough? Why did they have to mutilate his body as well? For Ratchet's scans had confirmed that whatever was used to cut the boy's ribs away had been tipped with a metal that was unknown on Earth but had been plentiful on Cybertron, hence the fact that Cybertronian bodies were made primarily of this metal.

His parents had been devastated at their loss, and partly blamed the Autobots for his death. They had permitted Optimus and Bumblebee to attend his burial, but afterwards, Ron had politely but firmly asked Bumblebee to return to the Autobot base. Judy had not been present at the time because she was upstairs in bed on strong tranquilisers: Sam's death had hit her hard.

 

"There is no reason for you to be here now Sam is gone, and your continued presence only serves not only to remind us of our loss, but could draw those 'Decepticons' you spoke of to us, surely? At the moment, we cannot find it within ourselves to welcome you onto the drive. It's nothing personal, Bumblebee, but I must ask you, please leave," Ron had told the yellow scout.

Bumblebee had had to admit that Ron had a point – the presence of Bumblebee on their drive might act to attract Decepticon attention to Ron and Judy rather than deter them. He had said goodbye to them, given them a number he or Optimus could be contacted on, and with a heavy Spark, driven back to the Autobot base. So far, neither Ron or Judy had made contact.

 

His thoughts were drawn back to Dissonance's odd behaviour on the battlefield, his stammered comment that had almost sounded in it's syntax, like Sam's, and his actions, leaping away when the smaller mech had had a clear shot at the scout. He shook his head. He couldn't make any sense of it. Perhaps he should leave it be, forget about it. Perhaps his grief at Sam's loss was making him see and hear things differently. Mikaela had told him that she kept seeing people on the street who looked like Sam, even though she knew it could not be. Maybe his processors were doing the same thing, making connections where there were none.

All the same, Dissonance's expression had been so _human_ , but maybe there was another reason for it? After all Jazz had used human slang all the time. However, Jazz was an Autobot; it seemed odd that a Decepticon, most of whom despised humans, would pick up human slang and speech patterns. Could it be possible that not all Decepticons despised or looked down on humans? Could it be that Dissonance was the exception to the rule?

Bumblebee offlined his optics and put the top away: all this theorising was getting him nowhere. He got up and went to find out if there were any jobs that needed doing, keeping busy was the easiest way to cope at the moment.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

 

A few days later.

 

Dissonance was jolted out of his recharge early again. He gave a staticky hiss of annoyance and confusion. More and more of the odd images and associations had been rising to his notice, still making no more sense, but unnerving him enough to interrupt his recharge periods.

Before, these vague images could be quieted by just forgetting about them, but ever since the battle, the unprecedented reaction at seeing the scout, Bumblebee, the images had gotten more frequent and more troubling.

A comforting pulse down the mind-link with his Creator soothed him, and once again he put himself into shutdown, hoping this time it would last longer.

 

Soundwave was concerned, more concerned than he would ever let on to any of his cassettes. All Sparks had a limited Spark-memory, but it seemed the once-human's Spark was unusual in holding more memories than was usual. Perhaps it was normal: humans had a mushy organic brain that tended to leak, maybe it was natural that humans kept intense memories in their life-essence? Soundwave was no medic, especially not to humans, so he didn't know. What he did worry about was that this problem was growing fast. He was concerned that the not-knowing could cause a conflict in the processors, resulting in a catastrophic failure from which his cassette would not recover.

He could wipe the processors and start over, he supposed, but as the problem memories did not arise from there it would likely only delay rather than solve the issue. Perhaps Dissonance should be allowed to research for himself, it might either make him realise who he had been – or it might solve the problem without him realising the whole truth.

 

The former possibility was a risk, but it was one Soundwave felt he had to take: rather risk that than risk Dissonance ending up more glitched than Ratbat. Starscream tolerated his continued care of Ratbat because of the fighting skills and usefulness of the others, but he felt that another 'useless' – at least in Starscream's optics – cassetticon could lead to a confrontation.

 

Of course a confrontation was going to ensue at some point anyway, unless Starscream changed his reasons and methods, but Soundwave wanted to start it on his own terms, to give him the advantage. Dissonance suffering serious processor damage could not only push the confrontation to earlier than Soundwave would like, it would likely be Starscream who began it – putting Soundwave at a disadvantage – and it would not be on the issue that Soundwave wished to confront the Seeker about.

Yes, he decided, he would send Dissonance out on a reconnaissance mission that would expose him to many of the elements and people featured in his images, something that he would have sent him on at some point anyway. He'd add a couple of items to the itinerary that would be tactically unimportant, but would give Dissonance maximum exposure to those featured in his 'dreams.'

He would send Dissonance out and report his mission to Starscream only when his absence was noted. The arrogant Seeker wouldn't like it but then Soundwave was only with Starscream for  his own purposes. The Seeker's carelessness had almost cost him one cassette, repairing Frenzy had taken much time and effort on Soundwave's part. Never again would Soundwave second one of his cassettes to anyone working underneath the flier.

 

Where keeping his cassettes online and maintained were concerned, there were no second chances.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again to the International Nerd Herd with this, particular thanks goes to KDZeal and LokiWaterDraca.

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Four.

 

"Mission understood. Compliance," Dissonance replied once his Creator had outlined his latest task. It would be the first time he would spend an extended amount of time from his Creator, and his recharge would have to be longer as he would no longer receive energy from an external source while recharging. 

He would also need to obtain fuel, but that would not be too difficult. In times of difficulty, he would be able to call upon Barricade to give him an extra jolt of energy or some fuel, though this was to be kept to a bare minimum. The humans were still on high alert for Decepticon activity and Barricade was trying to keep hidden when he was out of the Decepticon base.

He had left with Soundwave under cover of darkness and while Starscream was in recharge. On the outskirts of Tranquility, Soundwave transformed and released him.

 

His first solo mission was not as unsettling as it could have been for Dissonance; unlike most mechs, he had the mental connection that his Creator kept with all his cassette-siblings to reassure him, and in that way he was never completely alone. Soundwave would immediately know if some major problem arose, or a bad accident or situation overtook him, and would likely come to render aid as speedily but stealthily as he could. Soundwave had felt first Frenzy's decapitation, and then his near death, while still out in space: his response to that had resulted in him being one of the first of the Decepticon reinforcements on the way to the small blue-green world to make planetfall.

Dissonance stealthily made his way further in to Tranquility: his first objective seemed tactically unimportant to the small mech. He was not sure why it had been put on the list, but on the list it was, it was low risk and would not take long for him to place some passive receivers and check for anything significant. Then he could move on to the next location.

With his action plan formulated, he crept towards his objective.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Soundwave watched his newest addition slink off, melting into the shadows as he had been instructed to, and even once he had gone from sight, kept a careful awareness of the mental link between them. There was still the risk of processor issues, and Soundwave could mitigate the effects of most of these even over the link, but he would keep a careful watch on Dissonance's emotional state, and could send him into temporary shutdown if need be, which would slow any deleterious effects further.

 

Finally, he turned to go back inside, instructing Barricade not to tell Starscream that he had been out at all. The longer Starscream remained ignorant, the more time Dissonance would have before anyone might be sent after him.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOooOo oOo

 

Judy awoke fuzzily from the tranquilisers she still sometimes needed to get a good rest, or used to descend into blissful oblivion on the days when the pain got too bad. She spotted and picked up the note with her name on it that was propped up on the bedside cabinet.

_'Judy,  
_

_Gone to the shops for groceries._

_Back later. See you, Ron, xxx.'_

She put it back and lay there for a bit. People always said that time healed, that as time went on she would feel it less. They also said that the first of everything without him - first Christmas, the first birthday after his death, the anniversary of his death - would be the worst, and then it would get better.

She supposed that that last made sense, the 'firsts' had been so unbearable she'd spent them dosed up, but the rest was either lies, or didn't apply to mothers. It was a year since Sam's death, and time hadn't done anything for the grief that felt like a raw welt across her heart and mind. Every morning, she awoke with the knowledge that Sam was dead, her only child was gone, and it hadn't stopped hurting any. Neither could she see it being likely to get better after this year, it was just a longer time to be hurting, and she had another thirty or so years of it to endure.

 

She got up and quietly padded down the corridor to Sam's room. She opened it, looking in at the clutter that had been very slightly organised and disturbed only to stop it falling over and getting dusty. The only thing she'd removed from the room were dirty dishes and any perishables, and she had washed any clothes that smelled as if they needed it, and tidied the bed a little bit, otherwise the room looked as if Sam might walk in any moment, except for the fact it was a little _too_ clean.

She sat on the bed and lifted one of Sam's favourite hooded tops from the foot, holding it to her face. Any scent from him had long since faded, but she sometimes fancied she could smell some of the cheap aftershave given him by his uncle George on it. Apart from the rest of the room's contents, a few items downstairs, and a whole bunch of photos, it was all she had left of him. She put it down and stood, if she stayed there much longer she'd end up in tears again, and her heart felt like it would burst, she had cried so much.

 

She was debating going downstairs to get a drink and something from the fridge - Ron usually left something plated up for her for the rare times she felt like eating - when her ears picked up a sound from downstairs that she could not identify, a sort of high-pitched whining sound. She frowned and stood. Was Ron home already? No, it couldn't be, there was no sound of his key in the door, although there were other sounds, the door creaking slightly on its hinges, a strange, unidentifiable click, the sound of unfamiliar footsteps, the lounge door opening, the sound of drawers being opened and then closed.

Judy's heart started beating faster in her chest. She knew what Ron sounded like when he moved around the house, was used to the everyday noises of his activity around the house, but the sounds she was hearing were alien and unfamiliar to her. Whoever was downstairs was not Ron, and that meant they had an intruder.

Quietly making her way back down the corridor, she made for the cell she always kept by the bed.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ron was halfway home with the groceries when his cell shrilled. Without taking his eyes off the road he reached for it, answering immediately when he saw it was Judy.

" _Ron!_ " she hissed in a terrified-sounding whisper as soon as he answered.

"Judy, what's wrong?" he asked, concerned at the fear he could hear in her voice.

"Ron, there are sounds coming from downstairs, strange sounds, and footsteps. Someone going through the drawers. Someone else is in the house! What should I _do_?"

 

Ron had noticed several changes in Judy since Sam's death, one of them being indecision: where before she would have known precisely what to do, now she needed telling.

"Judy, call the cops and stay where you are. Don't let the intruder know you're there, don't draw attention to yourself. Get down under the covers and close your eyes and pretend to be asleep once you've called the cops, but keep the phone on you. If they're burglars, hopefully they won't want to wake you, but if they do, call 911 and put the phone on speaker. I'm on my way, I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Ron, I can _hear_ them, they're coming upstairs, oh God Ron, _help me_!" Ron could hear that Judy was close to hysteria. He didn't know if she was imagining that the intruder was going up the stairs or not, but he put his foot down, to hell with the speed limit!

"Judy, I'm coming honey, keep calm and try to keep them talking if they go in, go along with whatever they want, don't resist or be difficult, do as they ask!"

 

"The door's opening…Ron?…Oh my God!" Then all Ron could hear down the phone was the sound of Judy screaming. A sound that was abruptly cut off by another sound that sound Ron was unable to identify, which itself cut off. The static squeal that followed had Ron pulling the phone from his ear in pain, and when his ears stopped ringing, tried calling back. Thee wasn't even a single ring. A voice spoke.

_"The number you have called is currently unavailable. Please leave a message after the tone."_

Ron hit the end call button, and resisted the urge to floor the accelerator. He wasn't far now and getting pulled over by the cops or getting involved in a road accident wouldn't help Judy any.

He just hoped he wouldn't find he was already too late…

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Dissonance had reacted instinctively when the femme human began screaming at the sight of him. Pausing only to switch the setting to stun, he shot her with his arm weapon, which was like a mini-cannon. It stopped her making that appalling noise, but didn't kill her.

He had heard noises up here and had come to investigate, and now the femme was no danger, he was about to move on. First, he went over to look at her.

He remembered her from his images. He knew who she was anyway. Judy Witwicky: femme, human, Autobot sympathiser. Threat level: low. Also known as…

…Mom?

 

Dissonance shuttered and unshuttered his optics. That was _not_ in his preloaded information. Where had that come from? He quickly looked up the term on the Internet.

The results had him clicking in confusion. 'Mom' was an American slang term that human younglings called their femme co-creator. So what was the term doing cropping up in his processors when he viewed this femme?

It had to be a glitch, he could think of no other explanation for it. He left, and went in the room next door.

 

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Ron parked the car and got out. He saw the door was open, noted with alarm that the lock appeared to have been melted out, and remembered to keep quiet rather than shout: he did not want to alert their prowler that he was there. He grabbed the baseball bat that stood by the door. He crept up the stairs quietly, avoiding the steps that he knew would creak if trodden on. He swiftly crossed to their room and stepped in, bat raised high ready to strike.

There was nobody in there but Judy, apparently asleep.

He checked her, her pulse was slightly elevated, she was breathing, and he couldn't wake her by shaking her and whispering in her ear, but she seemed otherwise unharmed. He heard a noise outside and dropped to the floor, than eased out.

What he saw had him pulling his head back in and going for his cell phone.

 

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Bumblebee was about to go out to check the borders of Tranquility when he received a call from a human cell phone. He recognised the number as being Ron Witwicky's. Bumblebee opened the connection quickly - it had been almost a year since the human had spoken to him, maybe he now felt able to talk to him without too much emotional pain? He hoped so, he had missed the Witwickys, Sam most of all of course, but even his parents had been nice once they'd got over the shock of finding out Bumblebee's true nature…

 

"Mr Witwicky, Autobot Bumblebee here. How are you Sir?" he asked, taking the formal approach for safety's sake.

"Bumblebee!" Ron's hoarse whisper immediately put Bumblebee on alert. From the tone of Ron's voice, this wasn't a social call.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Can you get round here, Bumblebee, I think I'm going to need your help, this is something that I think you should deal with."

Bumblebee started up - he was already in his alt - and headed out of the Base. "On my way, but what is it, Mr Witwicky? Knowing what the problem is will help me plan what to do about it."

 

Ron sighed, then spoke.

"I'm upstairs in my bedroom with Judy. She's alive but I can't wake her. And there's a Decepticon in the bathroom."


	5. Chapter 5

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Five.

 

Dissonance reached up to the medicine cabinet, pulling open the door, yelping as cartons and bottles fell on top of him. Once the mini-avalanche had finished, he looked at the labels on the boxes and bottles. Most were for the femme he had seen earlier, a few were for a 'R. Witwicky', and there was even one for a 'Mojo.'

At that moment, the image of a small canine animal entered Dissonance's mind, and he was aware that the small beast should have been the first thing he encountered in the house, a little yappy dog that could make noise but not do much more. He wondered where it was, but then a sound from the room he had recently exited made him turn and go back in.

 

There was a male human crouched next to the stunned femme. Again, Dissonance had a file on him. Ron Witwicky: Human, male, Autobot sympathiser, threat level low, mate of Judy Witwicky. At the moment the human's threat level did not look 'low': he was currently pointing a primitive projectile weapon at him, although the hand holding it was shaking so badly, Dissonance had doubt it would hit him if fired. Dissonance slid open the hatch on his abdominal cannon: he still had to respond to the elevated threat.

"St-stay b-back or I'll sh-shoot!" the male Witwicky said, in a voice higher and more quivering than expected for his gender and age.

 _'Mr Witwicky, no!'_ came a tinny voice from the cell Ron was holding in his other hand. _'Do not present any threat or resistance, your chances of survival will be greater. Drop the gun, it will do no good, and if you shoot, it is highly likely that whoever is threatening you will shoot back, and you will not survive!'_

Dissonance was relieved to see that the human dropped the gun, moving to partially shield his mate, who appeared to be stirring.

"P-please don't hurt us, what do you want from us?" he asked. Dissonance saw the human's eyes flick to his chest cannon again, realised it was unnerving the human. He also realised, with a flicker of surprise, that he didn't want to unnerve the humans, either of them. He withdrew the cannon now that the primitive weapon had been dropped.

 

"Mojo where?" he asked, surprising even himself with the question, as he crept closer.

"Mojo? You want to know about the _dog_?" Ron asked.

Dissonance bobbed his head. "Mojo where?" he asked again, still not knowing why the dog's absence concerned him so. It was just an anomaly, a fortuitous one, as barking could have alerted the neighbours.

"Mojo is at the vet, the dog doctor's, he got into a fight with a bigger dog and got injured. They've treated it but are keeping him in a couple of nights to make sure he's okay,” Ron explained, not sure why he was telling this Decepticon these things, but figuring talking was preferable to being threatened.

 

By now, Judy was sitting up, edging closer to Ron as Dissonance edged closer. The Cassette reached a hand out and picked up a nearby photo.

"No, please, give that back," she cried, as Dissonance held it up to his optics and examined and scanned it.

It was a two-dimensional photographic image of a young male human. He wasn't smiling, but had been looking into the lens of the camera with a serious expression on his face. The picture triggered information, another file.

_Samuel James Witwicky, human, Autobot ally, threat level; non-applicable, Status; Classified._

 

Judy had no way of knowing that Dissonance had this information.

"Please give that back, It's my favourite picture of my son, Sam," she said, tears starting to trickle from her eyes. Dissonance recognised the fluid leakage as 'tears' something humans were known to do when unhappy, angry, frightened or laughing hard. Dissonance gauged from her expression that she was sad. He handed the picture to her, although something about the face in the picture was familiar.

"Where?" he asked. Judy's face contorted, the expression easily identifiable as angry.

"Dead, and your lot killed him!" she shouted. Then the flash of anger was gone as swiftly as it had come, and she dissolved into tears again.

He didn't recall deciding to move, but suddenly he had his arms about her. However, she cried out in fear, pushing him away and cowering back against her mate. Deciding that the humans were no threat, and that there was nothing further to be learned from them, he turned and walked out of the room. There was only the one room upstairs he had not seen yet, and it shouldn't take long to check it.

 

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As Ron stopped talking to him but started speaking to the mech in the room, leaving the cell connected, Bumblebee scanned ahead and behind him, and decided the risk of getting caught speeding was not only low priority, but low probability. He just hoped he would make it in time.

He didn't know who was there, but the fact it was small enough to be in the house, in the bedroom, made it likely to be a cassette. He just hoped that it was not Frenzy, for that one had already shown itself to have no regard for human life, and quite happy to divert from orders to pursue those it saw as its prey. He would have to hope it was one of those who would check with Soundwave before engaging in any such activity. Whatever the Decepticon was doing at the Witwicky house, Soundwave would not want to draw more attention to its activities by killing non-combatants and civilians.

Bumblebee accelerated rapidly towards Tranquility.

 

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Judy heard the door of Sam's room click, and her concern at what the metal thing wanted in there overrode her fear, and she was out of the bed and out of the door before Ron could stop her. She ran in, pulling open the door and almost running into Dissonance, who was staring around in confusion.

"Don't even think about taking anything from here!" she said, some of the old Judy steel back in her voice.

Dissonance turned slowly to fix unwinking red optics on her, and she shuddered in fear, recalling that Bumblebee had once warned that even the smallest mech was more than a match for any human, could physically tear a human's head from their body if it so chose. It regarded her for a moment, and she felt pinned by its gaze. Then it spoke, quietly, a single word.

"What?"

It indicated the room with a hand, and then took a few steps further in, looking around it again. Judy didn't even think about what she was doing, and walked in to stand behind the small robotic organism.

"This is – was – my son's room. It's all I have left of him, so please don't destroy or take anything," she said. Ron had followed but stopped his approach, scared that if he got too close the little mechanism would take it as a threat and attack his wife.

Dissonance looked up at the walls, at the glossy images adorning them.

"Those are the posters he chose – favourite bands, favourite shows, though I think some of them are only up for the girls," she said. "He was a typical teenage boy, liked pictures of women, the less clothing on them the better." 

 

As Dissonance moved further in to look at the cluttered desk, Judy followed and kept talking.

"Those were his assignment books, Sam always put his homework off until the last minute, he was always rushing it the night before." As Dissonance moved on, she followed as she noticed what had caught the optics of the mech before her.

"That's his computer – yes, that's how you turn it on," she said as the small mech did just that. "We haven't looked at his emails or what was on it since his death. And that's him with two of his friends,” she said, as the small Decepticon picked up a photograph and looked at it. "His best friend, and his girlfriend, and his car." Her voice went flat as the grief began to rise in her again.

She felt one the metal hands of the mech brush one of her own, then felt metal fingers take hers. It was instinctive for Judy to reciprocate the touch, and although on one level her mind protested at the oddness of the situation, on another, it was comforted. It was almost as if the mech was understanding that she was grieving, and trying to offer sympathy in such a human way as a touch.

 

Ron, for his part, was confused and uncertain about Judy's odd behaviour. He recalled how Judy had refused until recently to talk about Sam with the doctors and the therapists, even with him. Even at times when she had gone in Sam's room, and he had attempted to go with her, she had made it quite clear she didn't want him there, merely wanted to be alone with her grief. For her to be talking about it to another, any other, could only be a good thing, though he was baffled at her choice of confidant. He shook his head in bafflement. In her place, he would have been trying to tempt the little mech out, one way or the other. Here was Judy… _talking_ to it!

The mech was looking at the picture it was holding in the hand that was not holding Judy's.

"Mi-kaela…" he said. Judy looked at him.

"Yes, the girl's Mikaela, she and my son were going out together," she said, startled.

 

"Mikaela Banes." Dissonance spoke, and this time Judy could tell he was reciting from memory. "Human femme. Autobot ally. Threat level; medium. Status; active."

"She got involved because Sam was threatened," Judy said, her voice barely a whisper. "Now…I think she wants revenge."

She wasn't sure that Dissonance had heard, for he was looking back down at the photo.

"Miles," he said.

"That's…that was Sam's best friend," she quickly corrected herself. "As far as I know, he doesn't know a thing about the Autobots, or your lot," she said, glancing down at the purple emblem on his side.

"No information available," he confirmed.

 

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Bumblebee had to slow down as he got to the outskirts of Tranquility, the houses and narrow streets made driving at speed too dangerous. He had heard nothing but some distant-sounding unintelligible conversation from Ron's still-active cell, and could only hope the Witwickys were okay. As he pulled into their road, he could see that the light in Sam's old room was on. He stopped there and transformed away from the house before approaching. He did not want to scare the Decepticon into doing something that might harm Sam's parents.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

"Samuel James Witwicky, human, Autobot ally, threat level; non-applicable, Status; Classified," he said, looking back at the photo.

"What's so classified about the fact that he's dead?" Ron asked, curious in spite of himself.

"Question relevant," said Dissonance surprised that he himself hadn't noticed. "Shall amend file. Status: deceased." He looked up again.

"Bumblebee, Cybertronian. Affiliation; Autobot. Function; reconnaissance. Threat level; high. Status; active." 

 

As Judy looked at him, she realised that he had not, as with the other three, looked back at the photograph, but was looking directly at the window.

Following Dissonance's gaze, she saw hot blue optics set in a silver and yellow head looking in through the window.


	6. Chapter 6

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Six.

 

Bumblebee noticed with relief that Dissonance had not deployed his chest cannon, and hurried to speak, hoping to keep things that way.

"Dissonance, these humans only have contact with _me_ , and this is the first time in a year, and that is because you showed up unannounced, and they were frightened. There is nothing of use for you here, no tactical information your faction could use,” he said. "I will not stop you from leaving, nor will I pursue you if you leave this dwelling without harming the inhabitants."

Dissonance raised the hand holding Judy's and looked at it. "Harm not," he agreed. "Information sought."

"With Sam's death, these human's involvement with the Autobots ceased. There is no information of tactical significance to be found here," Bumblebee stated. "You must know that is true by now, you have not found anything significant so far, you are unlikely to, even if you continue your search. Leave now, let the humans grieve in peace."

 

Dissonance released Judy's hands, walked to the windows and put his hands on the sill, leaning forwards and looking out; Bumblebee backed off a step, not wishing to loom over the smaller Decepticon. 

"Viewpoint familiar," Dissonance announced, in a voice tone bordering on confusion. "Many things familiar. Conclusion; this one has been here previously. Error, error, no conscious memories." Dissonance's voice had risen both in pitch and volume, and he turned to look at the two humans, both of whom were in the room.

"Images, associations, not recalled in processors. Judy Witwicky: Mom, Ron Witwicky: Dad: a great guy. But I'm not getting a Porsche." He turned back to face Bumblebee, as Ron raised his hand to his mouth and went white.

"Bobby Bolivia. The driver doesn't choose the car, the car chooses the driver, but you were too expensive, Bumblebee, till you proved you were…greater than man?" Dissonance's voice continued to rise as both Ron and Bumblebee reacted in shock at this stream of speech, which Dissonance was getting from a stream of disjointed and confusing images that had began to flood into his head. The image flow was getting to be too much for Dissonance, too confusing, too much at once with too many confusing and conflicting details. He let out a screech and took a leap from the windowsill, past Bumblebee, and fled into the night.

Bumblebee nearly went after him but stopped himself, he had promised, and Dissonance had delivered. Instead he looked in at Ron, who had collapsed onto Sam's computer chair.

"How did he know all that?" asked Ron. "The only people who know about the Bobby Bolivia stuff was Bobby Bolivia himself, you, Bumblebee, me…"

"And Sam," said Bumblebee.

"So how does that little robot know?" asked Judy.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

The moment Soundwave felt the building confusion in Dissonance's mind through the link, he abandoned the calculations he was working on and diverted his full attention to the link, not interfering at that point as he felt it might be unnecessary and counter-productive. If Dissonance could control the issue himself, he did not want to intervene unnecessarily. For a short time Dissonance seemed to cope, but as the small mech's confusion built and led him to bolt, Soundwave knew something had to be done.

He sent a small mental 'push' down the mental link, a suggestion to hide, that the mech, in his panic, would not even consciously register. It was an easy enough thing for the little mech to do, forcing himself under a thick evergreen tree where he would not be seen. Then Soundwave sent a much stronger signal down the link, a command that would force Dissonance into recharge. This had two purposes. Firstly, it should slow or stop the stream of images that was confusing the little Cassetticon so, and secondly, it would give his processors a chance to organise, while otherwise not engaged in working, what had flooded in, meaning he could examine each image in his own time one at a time, rather than at speed and mixed in with others.

Soundwave was fairly confident that when Dissonance came out of the enforced recharge, he would be able to better cope with the new information.

 

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"He was confused and frightened. He seemed almost like a child himself," Judy said.

"Judy, that 'child' almost killed Cliffjumper the first time we encountered him," said Bumblebee. "Do not underestimate Dissonance like we did: he is a trained killer."

"He still seemed frightened and uncertain," Judy said. "His voice, his reaction…and he wanted to hold my hand, like Sam would do when he was younger, and was scared of or not sure about something or someone." She held up the hand in question, remembering the feel of the digits gripping onto her own.

"Judy, that 'child' is a Decepticon, a robot with no love for humans. If you try and comfort it, it might just try to rip you

 

"He still seemed frightened and uncertain," Judy said. "His voice, his reaction…and he wanted to hold my hand, like Sam would do when he was younger, and was scared of, or not sure about something or someone." She held up the hand in question, remembering the feel of the digits gripping onto her own.

"Judy, that 'child' is a _Decepticon_ , a robot with no love for humans. If you try and comfort it, it might just try to rip your head off or try to disembowel you. What should I do then? _Spank it?_ " Ron asked. He usually wouldn't get sarcastic with Judy, but she just wasn't being sensible about this.

"I suppose you're right," Judy said, looking down.

"All the same, Dissonance was displaying extremely erratic and aberrant behaviour,” said Bumblebee. "If you tell me the sequence of events, I'll forward it to Ratchet and see if he can throw any light on what just happened."

Once Ron and Judy had told him everything about the encounter they could remember, he forwarded it to Ratchet, asking if he had any possible explanation.

 

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Ratchet was once again going over every scan he had ever done of Sam when Bumblebee's message came in. Somehow, he felt that there was something missing somewhere, there seemed no logical explanation for the mutilation of Sam, especially as said mutilation was confined to a specific area of his body, and had been done with near-surgical precision. There was something nagging at the back of his processors, something that said the answer was somewhere in the scans, if he could just work out what it was he was looking for.

He reviewed it, and put it in a file to look at later as he checked the scans again, wondering what he was missing, and how. Frustrated, he just decided to run every test he could think of on them, and see if anything came out of it, even ones that would be far more applicable to Cybertronians than humans, after all Sam was not a standard human, he had been in contact with the AllSpark while it imploded in Megatron' s chest, who knew what that had done to him?

AllSpark….why was that making his processors tingle? Sam…and the AllSpark… He tried to hold on to the thought, feeling that something was hovering just out of his grasp. Then it suddenly came to him.

 _Spark energy!_ Perhaps _that_ was what he was missing! He had been slightly disturbed after the Mission City battle when he had realised that all the humans who had touched the AllSpark Cube had been left with some sort of residual Spark-energy from the contact.Sam's contact with it as it had died seemed to have left him with a greater concentration than either Mikaela, Will, Simmons, or Banachek, who had all been in contact with it at one time or another. It was something that seemed to have no effect or bearing on their lives or behaviour, an odd if interesting but insignificant fact he had noted and filed away.

He turned his attention back to Sam's scans, and on impulse ran an analysis of the Spark-energy in each of them.

His first and second scans of Sam turned up nothing: both had been taken before he had touched the AllSpark, no Spark energy was present. The ones subsequent all showed the same thing: diffuse Spark energy in his heart. If Sam had had a few hundred years, it might have eventually resembled a Spark, but even if Sam had lived to die of old age, it would not have given the energy long enough to do so, it would have diffused…

Again, it was as if he'd been hit by a physical blow. It wasn't the scans of Sam while he _lived_ that were nagging at him, it was the scan of his _body_ that had seemed strange somehow. Pushing aside the other scans of Sam to another file with their results in case he needed them later, or the 'hunch' that was nagging at him was wrong, he pulled up the scan of Sam's body to see if he could find out what it was that was in front of him that he was missing.

 

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Dissonance came out of his recharge two hours later. He knew he should move on to his next location, but the images he had received, now that he could review them on their own, were intriguing him. He sent a tentative query back to Soundwave: was there any particular timescale on this or could he do this in his own time? The answer he received back was reassuring: he was to take as much time as he deemed necessary.

He sat back and began to review the images.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet was looking at what he had seen before: a perfectly natural loss of Spark-energy, as was usual after death. At least it was natural in a _Cybertronian,_ but not in a human, as humans didn't usually have Sparks, but Sam had not been a typical human.

The Spark energy in his body when found was close to nonexistent, just a few residual traces here and there to indicate it had ever been there, just what Ratchet would expect if a Cybertronian died, just the residue of their dissipated Spark.

Except…that there should be _more_ residue than there was, Ratchet realised with a jolt. When Bumblebee had called him and he had seen Sam, his body was cooling but still slightly warm and pliant, rigor mortis had not yet set in. The energy should _not_ have gone that fast! Ratchet checked again, compared the results with everything he had in his files, and was shaken by what he found.

 

He had been correct, it seemed, in doubting that Sam's Spark energy should not have dissipated so fast. The closest match for the results he was getting compared with time of death was the scan results of a body from which the Spark had not naturally dissipated, but had been _artificially_ removed. Not, however, as sometimes had been observed on the battlefield, the physical tearing out of the Spark of a still-living mech. The screams of those unfortunates, screams that suggested that death in such a manner was excruciatingly painful, haunted Ratchet's nightmares at times, but such a death left a telltale, haphazard and disorganised trace, and this was not what he was seeing here.

No, the trace resembled the aftermath of something he himself had sometimes had to perform, the careful transference of a Spark from a barely-functional body to a new one, or the transfer of a new Spark, conceived naturally, from it's Creator's chest, to it's own body. Although that was with Cybertronians, not humans, so that didn't make any sense…

 

Ratchet's Spark flickered as a rumour he had heard, if it was true, could mean the results made perfect sense. It was said that when the war had started, Soundwave had first shot his employer, Senator Ratbat, and when he discovered he hadn't killed him outright, had Spark-transferred the dying Senator into a cassette, although some versions of the rumour said Soundwave's intention all along was to transfer him. It was a fact that Soundwave had a cassette called Ratbat, like the Senator, and it was also a fact that Soundwave was likely qualified and skilful enough to perform such a transfer.

If the rumour were true - and it quite possibly was true - than the mutilation, the Spark-energy pattern in the body, and even the sudden appearance of a new cassette, could make perfect, but awful, sense. Ratchet sat down, not wanting to concentrate on standing while his mind put all the pieces of this puzzle together.

What Soundwave had done before with a dying mech, he could likely repeat with a dying human who had something resembling a Spark. Collecting the energy would very likely have caused it to coalesce into a viable Spark. It was then that Ratchet remembered Bumblebee's message, how he had mentioned that Dissonance was exhibiting inexplicable and odd patterns of behaviour, and he quickly skimmed it.

What he found loaned his theory even more weight.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bold text indicates databurst speech. 1 breem =just over 8 minutes, 1 astrosecond = about a second.

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Seven.

 

Once he had filed and checked the still-puzzling images, Dissonance moved on to his second destination, hidden by the darkness and the undergrowth of this strange (but in the images, familiar) world.

Getting in was much easier than he had anticipated: as he had pondered the problem of entering undetected, the yellow Autobot scout, in his disguise form, had approached. Taking a chance, Dissonance had run along beside him on his off side as the gates opened, the scout's own distraction preventing him from noticing the small cassette's presence. Slipping into the shadow of a nearby building, Dissonance had waited until the doors had shut again, and the scout himself had gone inside, before entering the main building of the base of operations of the Autobots.

Brief scans had ascertained both a hiding place and that the route to that hiding place was unmonitored. Bolting down the corridors did not take too long, entering an empty room took less than an optic-shutter to attain. Once in, he settled into the lowest, least detectable, and most energy-efficient mode of activity he could, just waiting. Now was not the time to act. A better opportunity, he knew, would present itself soon. Dissonance had the patience: he need only wait until the recharge shifts changed, and then he could make his first move.

On the edge of first-level shutdown, he waited.

 

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"We are moving out in three breems. We need more fuel, and to remind both the Autobots and their squishy charges that the Decepticons are still here, still active, and will not just go away because they want us to," Starscream told Soundwave. "My wing-brothers are en route to the chosen location, take the other groundlings and await orders. Now go!" The Seeker nodded to Soundwave curtly. Soundwave nodded back.

"Acknowledged."

Starscream took off, not realising that his forces were one important member short.

For his part, Soundwave had no plans to tell him.

 

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Bumblebee was giving his report of the incident at the Witwicky residence when the alarm call came in.

"Decepticon attack reported at Nellis Air Base! Several planes and vehicles destroyed, Will Lennox is on the line requesting support!" Mirage called over the intercom, as the call came in.

"Cliffjumper, Hound, Bluestreak, stay in Base, everyone else with me to fight the Decepticons," Optimus ordered, sending it over the Base intercom rather than comming everybody: it was quicker and simpler that way.

As he assembled the fighters in the courtyard and Bluestreak lowered the force field, they were all unaware that another pair of audios had heard the command, and had decided that this was the perfect time to act.

 

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Fifteen Minutes Later.

 

It was Hound who detected the unauthorised signal first.

"Cliffjumper! Unauthorised downloads of personnel and tactical information being taken from our files. Files on recent plans, on Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sam Witwicky, Judy Witwicky, Ron Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, and Miles Lancaster are being taken from our files. I'll try and block." He fiddled a moment.

"Take a moment to locate where and I'll try to intercept," Cliffjumper stated.

"Room G11."

"On my way."

Cliffjumper sped out, heading for the room the Base plans stated was a room with a computer terminal, currently vacant.

He entered to see Dissonance at the terminal, but as he raised his hand ready to convert to a cannon, Dissonance didn't even turn, but activated his sonic shriek, which not only brought Cliffjumper to the ground unable to act, but destroyed the exposed circuitry of the computer unit. None of this concerned Dissonance: he had what he had come for.

Leaping over the prostrate Cliffjumper, he headed for the exit. Bluestreak got no more warning than a comm from Hound telling him of the unauthorised hacker, and then fell victim to the sonic assault from Dissonance, after all Bluestreak was expecting an attempt to break _in_ , not _out_. Using the unconscious mech as a step to get to the controls, Dissonance figured out the controls, lowered the field, and fled. By the time Hound came out to check, Dissonance was long gone.

 

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The Autobots were doing fairly well in their battle against the Decepticons, helped by the fact that they could leave their audios on.

They had all seen Soundwave call out his other Cassetticons, and were aware of the threat they posed, but as time passed with no sign of Dissonance being called, it became evident he was either absent, or unavailable for some other reason. Being able to leave their audios on was a great help in avoiding the other Decepticons and Cassetticons, although the absence of the little mech with the sound weapon was not missed by Starscream.

 **Soundwave! Deploy Dissonance now!** The Seeker ordered.

 **Unable-to-comply** , came back the unexpected and unwelcome response.

 **What do you mean? Deploy him, we need his skills!** Starscream said.

 **Dissonance-unavailable** , Soundwave replied.

 **Why?** the Seeker asked.

 **Cassetticon-Dissonance-on-assignment** , was the unexpected answer, something Starscream would have enquired about further had his inattention to his surroundings not caused him to pick up an unauthorised passenger who leaped from the ground as he swooped low to make an attack.

 

"Hello Screamer," said Sunstreaker as he grabbed at Starscream's tail fins and pulled. "Thought I'd pop along for the ride!"

Dropping and spinning in an attempt to dislodge the Autobot frontliner, Starscream commed urgently.

**Skywarp! Get him _off_ me!**

 

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Five minutes later, dented and scratched but free of unwanted passengers, he called a retreat, sending an additional, private comm to Soundwave.

 

**Soundwave! My quarters when you return! You have some explaining to do!**

 

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Dissonance quickly sorted the information of tactical importance from the information of personal importance to him. The former he sealed in an encrypted file which he would personally databurst to Soundwave when he returned, or sooner if necessary. The latter he sorted through and filed in a growing section of his memory he had set aside for anything connected with his images.

It seemed that the images concentrated on either some of the Autobot enemies – in particular the yellow scout – and several of the squishies, four of the five allied with the Autobots in some way. Of the five in question, one was unaligned, two were Autobot-aligned but of low risk or importance, and the fourth, the youngest femme, was considered of medium risk, partly because she was positively identified as the one to have dismembered one of his cassette-siblings, Frenzy.

 

Of the fifth there were no memories of being with him as such, and of the five he was considered the most dangerous. He was the slayer of Megatron, the Destroyer of the AllSpark, but was currently not dangerous, as he was, according to his creators, deceased. Which in no way decreased Dissonance's confusion as he came to realise that many of the images seemed almost as if they were from the Sam-squishy's point of view.

So it seemed to Dissonance that these squishies might be able to provide some answers. Decided on his course of action, he proceeded on his way, heading for the closest of the other destinations on his list.

 

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Soundwave got back into Base, and, as ordered, headed for Starscream's room. The cowed attitude and sympathetic glances Soundwave saw directed his way confirmed that Starscream was in a foul mood. Of the three things Soundwave considered would be Starscream's three greatest handicaps, his temper ranked second highest, outranked only by the Seeker's arrogance.

He commed his presence and he received a curt command to enter. He did so, and had only made three steps inside before the door shut and the thirty-foot flier stepped directly in front of him.

 

His optics were glowing redder than usual, his engines were giving out little revs, and only the Seeker's own self-control was stopping the shiver running through his entire frame from becoming more than that. The Seeker held his limbs and body tensely, and Soundwave realised that Starscream was in a real torque about something.

You-requested-Soundwave’s-presence?" he asked.

"Yes, indeed I did! I want to know why you disobeyed a direct order on the battlefield. I am the Decepticon leader. When I give orders, I expect them to be carried out!" Starscream's optics flashed even brighter for an astrosecond. "Why did you not deploy Dissonance? We only obtained half the fuel I planned before being beaten back, Dissonance could have bought us more time!"

 

Soundwave inclined his head.

"Starscream-is-leader. Dissonance-not-deployed-as-Dissonance-not-available," The big ground mech replied, his red visor looking directly into Starscream's red optics.

"What do you mean, not available? Was he recharging in your chest? Injured?"

"Negative."

"Then why?" Starscream asked, his voice rising. "Why was he unavailable?"

"Dissonance-unavailible-as-Dissonance-on-assignment," Soundwave intoned.

"Assignment? What assignment?" Starscream asked, his voice getting shrill.

"Private-assignment-Soundwave-suggested."

 

Starscream's engine began to thrum louder at a lower pitch: a sure sign of an angry flier. A few revs reinforced the anger as his self-control began to break down: The shiver running down his body increased until it began to vibrate, setting all the plating to clattering, and his wings rattled harshly. His fingers and claws were twitching, and his vents were cycling very fast, a hissing sound was audible.. For a moment, Soundwave was slightly alarmed: he had never seen Starscream quite this angry before. However, he did not let his alarm show in either his stance or his face.

"You assigned Dissonance to a mission without consulting _me_ or asking my permission?" the Seeker shrieked.

"Dissonance-Soundwave’s-responsibility: Starscream’s-permission-not-needed-nor-sought."

"I am the leader, you should ask my permission!" shrieked the furious flier. "Do you challenge my leadership, Soundwave?" The tone of Starscream's voice suggested that to do so would likely be an unhealthy thing to do.

"Soundwave-needs-no-permission-to-deploy-Cassetticons," stated the visored mech. Leadership-not-challenged; authority-is."

Soundwave found that this did nothing to mollify the Seeker, whose engines roared loudly in anger as he pulled back one powerful arm, flexed the claws, then whipped it forwards to rip across Soundwave's chest compartment.

 

The claws never got close enough to even scratch Soundwave's paintwork, however: the Seeker had forgotten that Soundwave could read minds. This, combined with his swift reflexes meant that Soundwave knew what he intended and was able to counter it. As the arm whipped forwards, Starscream felt a hand grab his wrist and halt its trajectory, at the same time as a leg hooked around one of his and yanked, and Soundwave's fist rammed the Seeker hard in the chest, just above the canopy.

This combination of moves sent the Seeker crashing down hard on his back, and he was kept down as Soundwave twisted his arm, painfully, so far that any attempt by Starscream to rise would break either one of the arm joints, or the edge of his delicate wing, where the shoulder joint was attached.

 

"Soundwave’s-Cassettes-Soundwave’s-authority," he said, then dropped Starscream's arm. "Starscream-not-challenge-that, Soundwave-not-challenge-Starscream."

Leaving that last suggestion - which Starscream knew was also a threat - as his last words on the subject, Soundwave left, leaving Starscream realising that had Soundwave challenged him to a leadership duel, he would have lost.

He realised that by letting him off with a warning, Soundwave had let him off lightly indeed. He also realised that Soundwave's warning was a deal, and a promise, and that should Starscream renege on the offered deal, Soundwave would carry through his threat.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Eight.

 

Gaining entry to the building was no great problem to Dissonance, the primitive lock was easily picked, and he slipped inside after stunning the huge canine that was chained up outside to stop it raising the alarm.

He crept through the house, looking in every room – each one empty - until he found the one he was looking for, the occupant sprawled in his bed with the covers half-on and half-off, his dirty blonde hair sticking out all over the place. Apart from the occasional shuffle from the amphibian in the glass tank, and the sound of the Lancaster-squishy's snoring, the room was quiet: the plastic box full of crickets had stopped chirping the moment Dissonance had entered.

He scanned the human, there was nothing unusual about him as far as he could tell, but it seemed that the Lancaster-squishy slept lightly. He stopped snoring, grunted and sat up, switching on his bedside lamp. His eyes widened as he saw the little mech, and he screamed, high-pitched and terrified, his hand grabbing the box of crickets, which he threw at Dissonance. The human's aim was true: the box hit and opened, scattering crickets everywhere. Dissonance scampered about chattering in distress as several crickets slipped under his plating and began hopping about.

Miles had planned to bolt out of his room, but the sight of Dissonance jumping around and grabbing at himself brought an unexpected laugh bubbling up. The laugh attracted Dissonance's attention, and as he raised his head, his glowing red optics fixing upon the human's face, the laughter died in Miles' throat as he realised that Dissonance stood between him and the room's door.

 

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Ratchet carefully tucked the newly repaired wiring and tubing back into Bumblebee's leg joint, and brought the sensors of the leg back online.

"There, how does that feel?" he asked Bumblebee. Damage dealt in this battle had been light, although the news of Dissonance's visit had dismayed the returning battlers. They couldn't help wondering if the battle had been a deliberate distraction to allow Dissonance to get at the Base while it was undermanned to get the information, although the information taken had puzzled all except Ratchet.

The medic had shared his theory with nobody yet, it was only a theory and he didn't want to risk that he'd gotten it wrong. Nor did he wish to upset the little scout even if it was right, because there was no guarantee that Dissonance wouldn't eventually lose his reluctance to engage in combat with Bumblebee.

Even if Ratchet was correct, the Dissonance of today and the Sam of yesterday could still be two very different personalities. If Bumblebee found out, but Dissonance did not or could not remember properly, or lost whatever it was that was making him react oddly, for Bumblebee it could be like losing Sam all over again, or worse. Bumblebee would know and see Dissonance about, but Dissonance might not know or acknowledge the scout as any more than an enemy.

 

"Bumblebee, I got your message about Dissonance and I agree that it does seem a very odd reaction from a Decepticon," Ratchet told him. "I'm working on a theory, but I don't know if it's correct or not, all I can ask is that if you find Dissonance in a similar situation, encourage him to talk. Talk about humans, draw on your experiences with Sam, if he's interested in humans there's a chance that interest can be utilised to help protect them."

Without having to resort to lying, Ratchet managed to explain to Bumblebee what he needed him to do if he met Dissonance in such a situation again. The little scout accepted this statement, bobbing his head in an approximation of a nod and saying "Okay, Ratchet." As Bumblebee left the med bay, Ratchet blew air through his vents. He was glad that his experience in negotiation had taught him how to tell the truth without telling the _entire_ truth.

"Finally, I can get my leg treated. Just look how deep those scratches went! Skywarp'll pay for that next time I see him!" came a familiar voice and Sunstreaker stepped over. Ratchet ran an appraising eye over the scratches which looked unpleasant but were superficial.

The medic snorted.

"Ah, stop grousing, they're barely worth treating but you're yelling louder than a sparkling whose just found its vocaliser!"

"But look at them I mean _look_ at them, I'll have to sand down to the metal before I repaint! I'm _disfigured_!" the yellow Twin groused.

Ratchet made a rude sound from his vents at such melodrama, and set to work.

 

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"Um…hi?" asked Miles as Dissonance watched him. "Are you..um…like alien, from another world? Or are you a test robot of some sort?" He watched as the blue and yellow mech approached him.

"Miles…Lancaster?" Dissonance asked.

"Uhh..yeah…who are you? I don't now how you know my name but you're right. What's your name?" asked Miles

"Designation Dissonance. What is your specialisation?" the mech asked.

"Specialisation? Um…I know something about Military aircraft, but it's not like a job or anything."

"Affiliation?"

"What?" asked Miles. "Um…American, Democrat…umm, human?"

"Autobot supporter? Decepticon pet?" the mech asked.

"Actually, neither, I've never heard of Autowhatsits or Deceptithingummies, and I'm nobody's and nothing's _pet_ if you don't mind, I'm a free American!"

The implication that he was a 'pet' had stung the usually mild-mannered and laid-back Miles' pride enough to make him raise his voice, but Dissonance paid it no heed.

"Affiliation: neutral?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Miles said. If it was an alien, he reasoned, maybe there was a lot they didn't notice, maybe where they came from they had pets that looked like humans or something. Maybe these 'pets were highly prized, maybe it had not been meant as an insult.

 

"What do you want here? Do you come in peace?" Miles asked, spreading his own hands to show he was unarmed.

"Purpose: to gather information. Method: whatever is necessary. Pacific communication most desirable," Dissonance told him.

"Yeah, me too," Miles said, sweating a little. "Ask away: I'll tell you what I can." He decided that it was best not to add that if what he knew constituted a potential compromise of national security should he divulge it, that he would not do so. He'd just pretend he knew nothing.

Dissonance bobbed his head. "Agreed. What is your connection with Samuel James Witwicky, also known as Ladiesman217 on eBay?"

 

Of all the questions Dissonance could have asked, Miles was not expecting _that_ one.

"What?" he asked.

"What is your connection with Samuel James Witwicky, also known as Ladiesman217 on eBay?" the small mech repeated.

Miles waited a moment to make sure he had heard right before asking "You're talking about Sam, right?"

"Affirmative," Dissonance replied.

"I'm his - I mean, I _was_ \- his best friend," Miles explained. "We hung out with each other, shared things, I know he got involved in something a couple of years ago, but I don't know what. He said he couldn't explain what, the Government had stuck a gag order on him, but I know it was something to do with that Mission City situation, which the Secret Services must have covered up," Miles paused to collect his thoughts, than began to speak again. He almost unconsciously lowered his voice to barely more than a loud whisper.

"If they are found before they are mysteriously removed, you can find accounts that sound mad – giant robots fighting each other, some robots helping the Military, others fighting against them. Call me paranoid or mad, but the effort expended on removing what some people call crackpot theories seems to lend the like to the opinion that they are nonsense."

 

"Clarify. Explain why this seems odd,” Dissonance asked.

"There are lots of theories about lots of things up there on the Net," Miles told the mech. "Theories about who really killed JFK, theories that Marilyn Monroe was murdered rather than committed suicide, and I could mention a dozen others. _They_ don't get removed, they are still there day after day. If something talking about Mission City is posted, particularly if it mentions giant robots, it's removed and the poster's account – be it Facebook, LiveJournal or whatever – is closed down. If the Mission City stuff is considered in the same bracket as the others, why is Mission City info taken down but the rest left alone? Doesn't that suggest that the Government is trying to hide _something_?" the young human asked, his long bony fingers combing through his hair in a nervous gesture as he talked.

Miles then blinked, looking at Dissonance as if he'd only just noticed him.

 

"You're a robot – okay, not a _giant_ one – but do you know what _really_ happened at Mission City?" he asked. Dissonance checked his files, pleased to find that the information about the Mission City battle _was_ present in his files, although Miles would need to understand something of the background to the Autobot-Decepticon conflict if he were to properly understand the battle.

"That is correct " Dissonance stated. Miles' eyes brightened.

"Look, I'm willing to make a deal with you…what did you say your name was?" Miles asked.

"Designation Dissonance," the mech stated.

"Dissonance," Miles repeated. "Well Dissonance, if you tell me everything about the incident in Mission City, I'll answer as many questions as I can about Sam. You're lucky my folks are away or I would've woken them with my scream." Miles held his hand out: looking up the gesture, Dissonance realised Miles was asking him to shake on the agreement he was suggesting.

"Well, do you agree? Do we have a deal?" Miles asked.

Dissonance carefully reached out to take the fragile organic hand to shake, mindful not to exert too much pressure.

 

"I believe the correct response is that yes, we have a deal," he replied. "I will tell you about the battle in Mission City, the data is in my processors, as is the history you must understand before I explain it. I will condense it and explain it in terms your simple organic mind can understand."

"Thanks, I think," Miles said, wondering if the slur was intentional or not. Dissonance shuttered his optics twice, then looked at Miles.

 

"The battle of Mission City was merely one of the later fights of a long-standing war between two factions of robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. One side is known as the Autobots, the other side is known as the Decepticons, and the initial conflict started before your own species had even begun to evolve…"

Miles listened with rapt attention as Dissonance began to explain.

 

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Two hours later. Miles knew all about the battle of Mission City, and in return, Miles had answered all Dissonance's queries about Sam. Dissonance now had two more destinations in mind, and headed towards the closest. He was a little nervous about this one, because whereas Miles Lancaster had, until recently, been an unknown quantity but likely to be harmless, the person who he planned to contact next had proven themselves to be dangerous.


	9. Chapter 9

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Nine.

 

Optimus was sat in his office, using the computer to do the tedious 'paperwork' the humans seemed to insist upon when he received a databurst from Bumblebee, who was outside his door and requesting permission to enter. Optimus databurst a greeting back and sent a pulse to open the door.

The small yellow scout stood outside, and his manner didn't seem to indicate that this was a professional matter, and Optimus, curious, beckoned the youngest Autobot inside, rising to draw them each a cube of energon. The way the scout shuffled into the room, as if nervous or frightened of something, reinforced Optimus' opinion that this was not a visit on any sort of official matter. Remotely locking his door and setting a privacy signal that would alert anyone else approaching that he did not with to be disturbed, he moved round from behind his desk to sit in one of the chairs at the other side of the room. This reinforced the informal atmosphere he was aiming for. He put the cubes onto the desk, indicating for Bumblebee to take one, but was somewhat surprised when the scout instead took a few steps forward and threw his arms about the bigger 'bot.

He could feel the tension in Bumblebee's frame, heard a low cry from Bumblebee's speaker, and dropped his arms down to Bumblebee's torso, holding the smaller mech close. Bumblebee was upset about something, was usually pretty good at keeping his emotions under check when distressed or excited. The fact he was here, now, crying in Optimus' arms, suggested that he had been doing just that, but was unable to keep this back any more.

Bumblebee was the youngest there, a shade younger than Jazz, but all of the Autobots looked upon him as their equal, a soldier, fighting a war that had begun not so long after his enSparkment. He always in battle fought, reacted, and otherwise carried himself with the detachment needed of a soldier, a combatant, and had fought and even killed when necessary for the Autobot cause. Optimus sometimes feared that the detachment was the beginning of the scout becoming hard and mentally battle-scarred, a 'bot who had only known war and would not know how to live a life of peace if that peace ever became more than a dream.

 

It was times like this that Optimus realised his fears were unlikely to be founded on any real concern. Bumblebee was a soldier, very much so, but what many of his fighting comrades overlooked was the fact that he was still only just an adult, who had had to grow up very fast even while a youngster. Although Bumblebee handled himself in battle admirably, there were times like this, when it was safe to do so, that he still reacted much like a youngster. Right now, Bumblebee's inner youngster needed a Creatorly hug.

 

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Dissonance decided that he would have to use the small segment of memory set aside in his programming to get a new form while he was not recharging with Soundwave. He could disable the cassette form for a short time, storing the pattern as a memory until he needed it again. Ambling about in robot mode was all very well, but it was slow, and he could not really travel by day in case he was seen.

 

Upon reaching his objective he became aware that his target was not there but in the garage next door, a two-wheeled motor vehicle stood outside: he scanned it and then pushed open the side door to the garage.

 

His objective stood inside the garage in blue shapeless overalls, her long brown hair tied up double in a band and crammed under a cap, kneeling by a car, checking the wheel nuts. She used the instrument in her hands to tighten a couple of them as he watched, and as he advanced, she stood and turned. As she spotted him, she lifted the torque wrench she had in both hands up to her shoulders, tensed and ready to swing.

"Come any closer and I will knock your bloody head off!" she warned him, wondering if she could hold the wrench one-handed for long enough to reach the cell in her upper pocket.

 

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For a few moments Bumblebee shook in Optimus' arms, the only sounds he made were whines and cries from his vocal processor, sounds he tried to muffle alternately against Optimus' chest plating and his arms, but soon the cries and shaking of the scout subsided, and he looked up at Optimus, optics flickering in his distress. Optimus adjusted his grip, holding the scout close to him.

"What is it, Bumblebee?" the Autobot leader asked once the younger mech's shakes had ceased entirely.

"I was Sam's guardian, Optimus, and I let him down, he's dead," As the scout clung tighter, Optimus realised that the top Sam had left was clutched tightly in the younger mech's hand. Optimus nodded briefly to himself; he had expected this to happen earlier, not more than a year after Sam's death. Obviously Bumblebee had been hiding this issue deeper than usual. As a result, the distress he experienced when he could no longer cope with his feelings was all the greater. Shifting his weight around again, adjusting his feet so his knees would bear weight, Optimus hauled the yellow scout onto his lap in a way he had not done in many vorns.

"Bumblebee, you were Sam's guardian, that is true, but you must also remember that Sam was very nearly an adult in his own culture, and also had his own mind. Sam was your companion, but he also quite willingly attended that battle, he wanted to fight, for his country and for his planet, which he had every right to do. Just as I could not shelter you from the war forever, and I allowed you to join the fight when you wanted to, you must accept that it was the same with you and Sam," the Autobot leader said gently. He began to lightly rock Bumblebee, clasping the scout to him comfortingly.

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Ratchet was weighing up what he knew in his processors: the facts, and the conclusions to be drawn from his results and research combined with those facts.

 

Fact one: there had once been an Autobot Senator called Ratbat. Once the Senator had apparently been killed, Megatron's right-hand mech Soundwave had been found to have a cassetticon of the exact same name.

Fact two: Soundwave was capable enough to do what he was rumoured to have done: to have transferred the Senator's Spark to a blank cassette.

Fact three: Spark-transfers could carry a risk of glitch: the more stressful the transfer, the more likely the chance of glitch, which could naturally reverse but was not always the case.

Fact four: Sam's body had been mutilated, and scans suggested that the Spark-energy he’d ended up with from his contact with the AllSpark had not dissipated after death, but had been artificially removed.

Fact five: after Sam's death, a mysterious new Cassette by the name of Dissonance had arrived on the scene, a cassette that was now showing erratic and inexplicable behaviour; inexplicable unless his theory was correct.

 

Theory: Sam's protospark had been removed from his body by Soundwave and transferred into the cassette by Soundwave.

Theory: Spark-memories were confusing the cassette, but whether they would become clearer or more nebulous would only be seen with time.

 

To Ratchet, the facts all fitted with his theory, but he had no proof. All the same, he decided, he would present his theory to Prime after he had constructed his case in an easy-to-understand format, something he would do later.

 

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Optimus stroked Bumblebee's helm comfortingly with one hand briefly, just the once, as he continued to talk.

"Anything could have happened to Sam, Bumblebee, even out of conflict, and that would not have been your fault either. Your function of guardian was to protect Sam _to the best of your ability_ , Bumblebee. Even, I, even Prowl, could not have and did not predict that Starscream would seize an opportunity that became available to drop down and seize Sam. The boy would not want you to blame yourself for failing to save him from a situation that did not become apparent to any of us until it was exploited."

"He's gone, Optimus, I'll never see him again," Bumblebee whimpered.

"What you are feeling is not unique, Bumblebee, we have all lost those close to us. Your grief is greater because you and Sam were very close, and your loss is far more recent. Distance makes the pain fade a little, over time it becomes less extreme, but I cannot say it will never stop hurting, because if I did that, I would be lying." He began to hum a tune, low in his vocal processor, as he continued both to talk and to rock Bumblebee.

"Any commanding officer will tell you that the names of those they have lost stay in their processors, that they feel the loss of each and every one of those mechs and femmes who sacrificed their existence in conflict, usually to save or aid one or more others. Grieving and blaming will not bring them back, Bumblebee, the best way we can honour those we have lost is to speak of them and not let our memories of them die, and call to mind how they would react in a certain situation. If it seems the right thing to do, do it in their memory if you are faced with a similar situation. Live for Sam's memory, as he would want you to, grieve for him, for that is only natural, but remembering him as you best knew him is the best thing you can do to honour him. That, and respect the choice he made, without blaming yourself, for it was his choice, and his alone to take."

"Yes Optimus," Bumblebee said drowsily, just before he dropped into recharge. Optimus stood, still humming, holding the scout's limp form in his arms. He moved over to his recharge chamber, glad that Ratchet had never removed the instruction keyed into the scout's processors to recharge when the tune was hummed, something installed in his processors at an early age when the youngster had needed to be lulled back to sleep when woken by the sounds of the war in his youth. After a recharge, during which his processors would sort the conversation and hopefully run over it as he slept, the scout, he hoped, would feel somewhat better.

 

He carefully lay Bumblebee in the chamber, the scout still clutching Sam's hooded top in one hand, then gently pushed the canopy shut and set the dial for four hours, before sitting down and beginning to drink one of the untouched cubes of energon on his desk. He ran over the names, so many names, of people who had died under his command, recalling how they had been and how each one had given their life for the Autobot cause.

What he had told Bumblebee, he reflected, was true; the pain _was_ less acute after this time, but their loss still hurt.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Soundwave was in his room when he heard Starscream walk out of his own room and screech off into the sky, and relaxed. He didn't think it likely that Starscream would speak to the rest of his Trine and get them to help attack him in retaliation for what he had done earlier, but it had not been an impossible scenario. He turned his attention to his questing cassette, checking on the mental link to find his cassette was alert, but clear-headed. There was turmoil beneath the surface, but it was adequately controlled.

This pleased Soundwave, for it meant he could devote most of his processor capacity to thinking through the various options available to him, about what he was to do about Starscream, and how he would deal with the Seeker.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

When Mikaela caught sight of the green and yellow mech as she straightened up from the car wheel, she raised the torque wrench in her hands up to her shoulders as she threatened the mech, meaning every word of it. She had never seen him close up, but had heard about him from the Autobots, and the green and yellow mech could only be the small and lethal Dissonance.

To her surprise he didn't threaten her, or challenge her statement, but first ran a scan over her, which just tickled, and then raised one long pointed finger, unnervingly like Frenzy's but green, to point at her.

 

"Mikaela Banes?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's my name, what of it? What do you want?" she asked, not relaxing her hold on the wrench nor letting her guard down one bit. What he said next took her totally by surprise.

"Um, hi, Mikaela. Did your Dad get his parole?"

Her mouth dropped open and she almost dropped the wrench but recovered her grip.

"How do you know about that?" she asked.

"I – Simmons mentioned it, in the car," he said.

"You been talking to Simmons or have you hacked into the old Sector Seven database to get the knowledge?" she asked, her dark eyes flashing angrily at the Decepticon's presumption.

"No, Kayla, I swear!" he said, and again she almost lost her hold on the wrench at the use of her nickname, a privilege she only gave to a very few individuals, before anger took hold again.

 

" _Don't_ call me Kayla! Only my dad, two close friends, and Sam are – or in Sam's case, was - allowed to call me that!" she said.

"I'm sorry, I guess I should leave, but I wish I could work out what's going on in my memory now. I have such confusing images," he said. As he turned to go, she realised the syntax of this mech was uncannily close to Sam's, and without knowing why, she called after him "Wait!"

He turned to look back her expectantly.

"My Dad got his parole, he came home last week, he and Mom are out together today. Since you asked?" she said. At that moment her cell rang.

 

"I should answer this," she told him. He bobbed his assent and she took a chance and put the torque wrench down to answer her cell. She looked at the screen and pressed the answer button.

"Ratchet? Yes, it's Mikaela here. Can I help?" she asked. She listened to the brief speech Ratchet made, her eyes getting wider and wider as Ratchet outlined what research he'd done, and what he theorised.

"What? You mean – Dissonance might actually be _Sam_?" she asked. "It would explain an awful lot!" Ratchet spoke again, and once he finished, she spoke up.

 

"Funny you should say that, because he's here at the moment," she told the Autobot medic. As she finished speaking, a familiar transforming sound from outside reached her ears, and she looked up to where Dissonance had been standing.

"Oh no, he's _gone_!" she said, moving out of the garage to stand by her Vespa. She had worked through the night, she realised, the sun had risen enough for her to see the sky and the view around her getting lighter. Her eyes searched the road and fixed on a figure accelerating away, a figure she knew had to be Dissonance, unless she had a twin she didn't know about.

For the figure straddling a Vespa identical to her own was dressed as she was, in fact was identical to her, except it was fritzing slightly, a bit like a bad analogue TV signal.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 joor=about 6.5 hours.

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Ten

 

"Mikaela?" queried Ratchet on the other end of her cell phone. "What has happened? What do you mean, 'gone?'"

"He's taken the form of my Vespa, created a holoform of me, and he took advantage of my distraction to bail. He's headed into Tranquility on something that looks uncannily like my Vespa."

"Well, at least we've got a description, and know he's likely to stick to the roads now. It's more than we had to go on before We'll keep an optic out. I'm assuming he's looking more for information to explain his spark-memories than anything else."

He paused.

"Mikaela, if you see him again, or anyone else contacts you to let you know they've seen him, let someone here know. We don't think he'll be a danger to anybody else, but it sometimes pays to be too careful, and I'd rather not take any chances. If he gets too scared or confused by what is going on, he may yet lash out."

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

As he sped away, Dissonance sorted through the overheard conversation – or Mikaela's side of it anyway – tallying it with the knowledge in his mind. He ran probabilities through his processor, put it through logic routines, and found that all the data he so far had was beginning to point in one direction. The one explanation that made sense of it all, improbable as it might seem at first, tallied with some of the analysis of the emotions associated with the images, and his more recent feelings in his encounters with the squishies he had recently spoken with.

He now had an idea of what to speak about and what to ask about at his next stop, and hopefully an answer to some as-yet unanswered questions.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Judy was sat downstairs in front of the television, watching some game show re-runs without honestly watching. Ron was at work, and he had been heartened by Judy's willingness to get up and get dressed that morning. He hated to admit it, but the difference seemed to be directly attributable to the visit of that little Decepticon.

He knew how hard it had been to get Judy to talk about Sam, and the circumstances surrounding his death, and figured that speaking of Sam to the little mech had been therapeutic for her. Of course, he would have to take over where the small robot had left off; although he was still hurting as well, he kept it under control. It would not be helpful to Judy if he couldn’t cope either. Thankfully, the work he did was a distraction, which helped. He was grateful that he and Judy grieved in such different ways.

Bumblebee had stated before leaving the other night that he thought Dissonance would not be returning any time soon, if at all. For that, Ron was grateful; the little mech had started something Judy needed, but could quite easily do more harm than good if he came back.

What Ron didn't realise is that Judy felt otherwise: she had felt the small mech's uncertainty, recalled how he had clutched at her hand, and figured there was a chance he might return. He _knew_ stuff about Sam, stuff she couldn't even begin to guess at how he knew, but she figured there was a good possibility he would be back. She didn't want to be taken by surprise in her bed again, had a few things she wanted to try, and more than just a few things she wanted to ask.

Of course, Bumblebee _had_ stated that he thought a return this early was highly unlikely, but Judy decided to be ready anyway. If and when he returned, it would likely be with little or no warning, and she could think up more things to say and ask during the time she would have to wait.

For Judy was confident he'd be back, her gut instinct told her he would return.

No matter how long it took, Judy was prepared to wait.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Bumblebee came out of recharge and sat up, pushing up the recharge chamber canopy, and saw Optimus looking at him. His clear blue optics twinkled at the scout – a trick of dimming and brightening his optic lights he had managed to grasp quite early on – as he asked "Do you feel better for your recharge?"

"Yes, thank you," Bumblebee said, raising the hooded top he still held up to his cheek, feeling much calmer than he had a joor or so ago. Sam's scent was fading further, but was still just detectable to his olfactory sensors, and Bumblebee hurriedly subspaced the garment before the human's smell could dissipate any further.

"Ratchet has contacted me, and wishes to speak to us both. I suggest we both make our way down there," Optimus said. Bumblebee nodded.

"I'm ready when you are."

Optimus' response was to databurst the door open and begin to walk out.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo ooO oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet did not rush anything, being fully certain at each stage that both the Autobot leader and the yellow scout knew what he was talking about, and that they understood everything before he moved on, explaining things in simple language if they got too technical, or if either of the non-medically trained mechs got confused. Although both of them had begun to guess where he was headed when he was close to concluding with his theory, they both afforded him the courtesy of hearing him out. He finished up with the conversation with Mikaela, using her observations along with information garnered from other observations, from Bumblebee's conversation with Ron and Judy and Dissonance, to explain what he thought was going on.

 

"Limited Spark-memory in previously dormant or transferred Sparks _is_ a known phenomenon amongst Cybertronians, but usually consists of the Spark knowing its name, a few images, and emotional responses to certain surroundings, situations, or events, usually not enough to cause the conflict that Dissonance seems to be experiencing. I have a theory as to _why_ Dissonance's Spark-memories are so varied, persistent and strong."

"Is it anything to do with being human previously?" asked Bumblebee. Ratchet nodded.

"I have reason to believe that it is the difference between mechanical hardware – that is, our processors – and the human hardware – the organic brain – that is the reason for this," Ratchet told them. "Organic hardware is far less durable than our processors, plus human movement and memory is controlled by the nervous system, which is an _organic_ electrical network. I believe that when Sam's proto-Spark – given to him by his contact with the AllSpark - was removed by Soundwave, a good portion of the electrical energy – containing some of these memories, encoded in electrochemical form - was also taken. The Spark energy preserved them, as Spark - memories, and now they are expressing themselves, confusing the mech known as Dissonance with memories recorded from when he was a human called Sam." Ratchet sighed and leaned back.

"All his visits – to Ron and Judy, to this Base, judging by the files he took, and to Mikaela - make sense if he is investigating these Spark-memories. He may have made the connection already, or he may be on the verge of doing so, but one thing I am certain of is that Soundwave _is_ aware of what he is doing, and must have given him at least a little permission to investigate, otherwise he could just shut Dissonance into recharge and retrieve him." He straightened up again, as Optimus asked the question that was on all of their processors.

"What benefit does Soundwave gain from allowing Dissonance to investigate his origins? Does he plan to use the knowledge, and Dissonance, against us in some way? Or does he have an agenda we can't even begin to guess at?"

"I don't know," Bumblebee said, 'but I think I had best check on Sam's parents. This puts his likelihood of returning to visit them far higher than I had previously thought."

"Then check it out, scout, but keep us informed of any developments and if you need backup, call us," said Optimus, immediately going into Commanding Officer mode.

"Yes Sir," This was Bumblebee, who headed for the med bay exit. A few moments later, Optimus and Ratchet heard him transform and drive off.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Skimming Dissonance's mind with his own, enough to read what Dissonance was thinking but not so much as to disturb or distract the little Cassette, Soundwave knew that Dissonance was coming to the correct conclusion, which meant that it was time to put his carefully thought-out plan into action.

He databurst Starscream, asking to see him, slightly concerned that after their earlier disagreement, the Seeker would refuse. To Soundwave's gratitude and relief, the Decepticon leader agreed to see him.

He turned and headed for Starscream's quarters.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Dissonance reached the dwelling he was heading for without incident, and checked that there was nobody else around to witness his transformation and his actions, after all, this was broad daylight in a densely-populated area. As it was still early, he was in luck: most people who were going to be up had gone to work or school already, most of those who had nothing to do that morning were still indoors.

He let his Mikaela-holoform dissipate, then unfolded into robot form. He noticed that the lock had been replaced, but it was easy enough for him to pick it as he had done at the Lancaster house, and then quietly slip inside. There was a slight click as it opened, but if the situation was the same as the last time he had been here, than anyone in the house would be upstairs.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Bumblebee found Ron Witwicky's work number and called it.

"Please can I speak to Ronald Arachald Witwicky, it's urgent, tell him it's Bee calling," he told the person who answered the phone. A few moments later, Ron picked up the phone.

"Hello Bumblebee?" he asked. "They said it was urgent, what's up?"

"I have reason to believe that Dissonance may try to return to your house within the next seventy-two hours. I'm going to check it out but be ready for a call," he told him.

"Okay, but I'm going to take a half-day, my Boss's wife lost a child a few years ago, if I cite Judy as a concern he'll understand, and be fine with that. I'm not hanging round here waiting for your call, I'm going to check on her myself," Ron said.

"Okay, but don't take risks and _be careful,_ Ron," Bumblebee said, but found himself speaking to the dial tone: Ron had already hung up.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Judy heard the click of the door lock, and the fact that it was not followed by Ron's cheery customary greeting told her what she needed to know: Dissonance, as she had expected he would, had arrived.

She felt elated and emotionally stronger than she had in months. Finally, she could help somebody again, another intelligent being, not just Mojo, who was still at the vet's, for Ron was scheduled to pick him up that evening.

Judy would be the first to admit that she had a nurturing nature, when she had been younger she had brought home many waifs and strays of the animal kind, to the bemusement of her mother, and the annoyance of her father. Having Sam, her own child, to dote upon, had cured her of that, although it was Sam’s growing up that had prompted her to buy the small bundle of fluff that had turned into Mojo from a pet store she had passed on the way home. The loss of Sam had left her bereft, but now there was this alien, but still confused, robot around, and as she had surmised, he had returned. Perhaps he had sensed her willingness to give aid or comfort, the same way she had sensed his confusion?

She saw a flicker of movement beyond the living room door, in the hall, and smiled.

"Hello, it's Dissonance isn't it? Welcome to my home, my name's Judy. Come in, please," she said.

There was no sound or movement for a moment, but then the front room door opened and a figure stepped in.

Although he looked different - in particular Judy didn't recall seeing the wheels sticking out of the backs of his shoulders before, and his body shape looked subtly different - it was unmistakably the same blue and yellow mech she had seen earlier. For a start, his head was unchanged in form or feature, also he looked at her warily, but with recognition in his red optics.

"Come in, I don't bite, I won't hurt you," she assured him, closing her lips over her teeth, aware that in some parts of the animal kingdom it was a threat gesture, and might be interpreted as such in the culture this robot had come from.

Dissonance moved into the room, its optics fixed on her, then when she made no further movement, they flicked from side to side at the items in the house, flicking back to Judy's hand when she extended it and patted the seat beside her.

"Come on, sit by me. Do you want to talk about anything? Is there anything I can get you?" She patted the seat again, and as Dissonance moved over, moved the hand, lying it along the back of the settee she was sat on. He scrambled up to sit by her, and it was a Spark-feeling rather than his logic circuits that prompted him to lean against her side. Her arm dropped down around him, but it didn't feel confining, more comforting. Nor was it slimy, in fact it was quite a pleasant feeling: the Witwicky-femme's – no, _Judy's_ – side and arm were dry, pliant and warm.

His head was level with his shoulder: he twisted it to look up at her. She was still smiling, looking at him, eyes meeting optics unflinchingly.

"What do you want? How can I help you, Dissonance. You seem confused. Is there anything I can help with?"

 

"Sam," he answered her. "Please can we talk about Sam?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 astrosecond=1 second. Thanks to Kd Zeal, for editing Soundwave’s speech patterns. Also thanks to an idea given me by Spoon10488 (FanfictionDOTnet) for Dissonance's reaction to Bumblebee.

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Eleven.

 

"What do you want to know about Sam?" Judy asked the cassetticon snuggled against her side.

"Everything you can think of. Tell me everything about him," Dissonance replied.

"Everything?" Judy asked. "Even about him as a baby?" Dissonance nodded. Judy reached out to bring over a fat blue-bound volume.

"Then I'll start at the beginning," she said, opening the album which Dissonance felt he had somehow seen somewhere before. Inside, Dissonance could see several primitive 2-D coloured images of a happy-looking chubby sparkling-equivalent human, and one fuzzy black and white image. It was this that Judy pointed to.

"This is the first picture we ever got of Sam, from before he was even born. We were given it at one of my scans."

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

When Ron reached the house, his worst fears were realised; the front door was already ajar. Getting down low to the floor, he crept in far enough to see into the front room, whipping his head back once he had confirmed what he had seen, although the way the woman and the mech were sitting companionably side-by-side, looking at a photo album, suggested that Judy was in no present danger.

Creeping back outside, he pulled out his cell and called a number,

"Bumblebee," he whispered hoarsely the moment he heard the call connect. "He's here, and he's sitting by Judy."

"What is he doing? Is there a way she can creep away?" Bumblebee asked.

"I don't think so, Bumblebee. I don't understand it myself, but he's lying against her, and she appears to be showing him the family photo album."

"I'm on my way. Wait for me outside," Bumblebee said. The purr of an empty line was the only response.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ron slid the cell into his left pants pocket and quietly walked in. He moved slowly, making sure not to startle the two as he slowly raised his hands to show he was unarmed and, as if nothing was amiss, asked "What's up? Who's your friend, Judy?"

"This is Dissonance," she stated. "He wants to know about Sam. Do you remember when we took him on the donkeys at the beach, Ron?" she asked.

"I fell off. It hurt but I didn't cry," came the voice of the blue and yellow mech.

Both Ron and Judy turned to stare at Dissonance, who was looking up at them in a confused manner.

"But how can I remember that when I wasn't even there?" he asked.

"That's something I've noticed," Judy said. "You seem to have knowledge of things that you cannot know of. Sit down Ron. Dissonance, can you tell us, as I go through telling you about Sam's life, if you have anything to say about it, anything you know that you don't know how?"

"Agreed," Dissonance said.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Soundwave checked the mental link as he sensed the slowly-growing confusion in Dissonance's processors at the unnerving way he was able to talk about Sam to his Creators when he shouldn't have known any of this. It was a simple matter to keep some small portion of processor power listening and analysing what Starscream, who stood in front of him, was saying.

Soundwave knew that Dissonance was trying to sort out all the information in his head into some sort of coherence, but he was missing an important piece of information, a keystone for the mental puzzle in his head. Preparing the information, including his own visual record of the event and his thoughts at the time, he converted it into a transmissible form and sent it to his cassetticon. Now Dissonance would have to make of it what he could.

Keeping a light connection with Dissonance's mind, Soundwave turned his attention back to what Starscream was telling him, nothing in his body language or optics showing that his attention had been diverted. Judging by Starscream's behaviour, he hadn't noticed Soundwave's brief distraction.

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo 

Bumblebee was crouched near the window, listening to the animated discussion between Ron, Judy and their son, not that any of the three were yet aware of the latter fact. The two humans were wondering how the mech in front of them could know of salient facts about one of their outings that only Ron, Judy, and Sam would have known about.

Dissonance suddenly froze, his optics dimming, in what Bumblebee knew as the sign of an incoming message. The freeze lasted longer than the usual astrosecond, except for the optics, which clicked open and shut in a way Bumblebee knew often indicated confusion and distress in a mech. Bumblebee stayed where he was as both Judy and Ron tentatively touched the small mech, calling his name.

He unfroze, but as he did, he caught sight of Bumblebee through the window. He leaped forwards, sliding open the panel of his abdomen to reveal the abdominal cannon within, which whined as it powered up.

"Identification: Autobot scout Bumblebee, status: enemy." The mech had carefully interposed himself between the adult Witwickys and Bumblebee.

"Leave or I will destroy you," he stated, then "I won't let you harm my parents!"

 

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

"We will teach those Autobots and their squishy friends a lesson they will not forget about messing with Decepticons!" Starscream was telling Soundwave, stabbing towards the ground with one sharp metal digit. It seemed he had decided not to confront Soundwave about his earlier behaviour, but had used the anger to fan the flames of his anger at their humiliating defeat earlier. Soundwave was convinced even more now that his current plans were correct.

"Starscream: Reason-for-current-aggression?" he intoned.

"I told you! Those Autobots and their squishy humans lost us the AllSpark, killed Megatron, they have to _pay_!"

"Pay-what ?" He asked.

"We can kill the Autobots, and the majority of the squishies, make slaves of those of use to us, take the resources of this stinking planet, and when we leave it, it will be a smoking cinder!" Starscream hissed.

"What-benefit? Other-resources-available," Soundwave said.

"For revenge against these pathetic inferior forms of life," Starscream stated. "We start tomorrow: my wing-brothers and I will bomb a major shopping centre, you, Barricade, Wreckage and the other groundlings can move in. You can release your Cassettes to help round up and kill any fleshlings that try to escape. This will be merely the beginning of the end for those vile organic creatures!"

"What-of-Military?" Soundwave asked, and he could see Starscream had not quite worked that one out.

"You send Frenzy in first to paralyse their networks,” He said.

"Inadvisable: he-is-known; they-will-be-alert."

"Do you have a better suggestion, or do you intend to stand against me again?" Starscream hissed. "I let you off once; a second incident will _not_ be overlooked, and my wing-brothers and I together will defeat you," warned the Seeker. "You will send in Frenzy tomorrow, when he has done his bit he signals us, then we attack. What better target than the rebuilt section of Mission City? Let's restart the beginning of the end from where it first started. Recall Dissonance, and deploy Frenzy."

Starscream didn't even see Soundwave recoil, he just felt the sonic disruption of the big grounder's sonic cannon, felt himself fall as many of his motor and communications functions shut down. He looked up at Soundwave, tried to contact Thundercracker and Skywarp, panic causing his optics to widen as he realised his communications system had been all but destroyed in the sonic assault.

"Negative," Soundwave stated, stepping over towards Starscream. "Vengeance-reaps-much-trouble, few-rewards. Soundwave-refuses." He reached down, and with a few manipulations of the neck cables, offlined the stricken Seeker.

Looking around Starscream's cabin, he found what he was searching for: red and white paint, and some brushes. Searching in his chest he found an empty cassette, a flying one, and used the paint to carefully but quickly draw a pattern of lines on the cassette's wings: an obvious duplication of Starscream's Academy trine-leader's marks the Seeker had worn on his wings on Cybertron. Then he moved back over to Starscream, bringing him back online.

He made sure the painted cassette was in the Seeker's field of vision as he re-onlined, and saw the fear darken the Seeker's optics, his damaged systems trying to tense to allow him to rise and fight, or run, but the sonic cannon had done its work: much repair would be needed before Starscream would rise to his feet again.

"Starscream-fortunate: Warning-given." He lifted the cassette slightly, flipping it back into its storage form. "Pursuit-will-bring-punishment, and-new-Cassette-for-Soundwave." He aimed his sonic cannon again, the second blast damaging the Seeker so badly he would need much repair, sending him into automatic emergency recharge. Putting the cassette back in his chest, Soundwave recalled his other Cassettes from their duties around the base. 

 

For a short time he had considered with dispensing with the warning, but transferring the Seeker's Spark to a Cassette, while he was still having to cope with Dissonance, was too much trouble at this time. If Starscream chose to disregard the plain warning, however, he would not hesitate the next time. For Soundwave to give first chances was rare, second chances were even rarer.

Third chances were nonexistent.


	12. Chapter 12

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Twelve.

 

"Dissonance, Autobots do not harm humans, your files must tell you that, I am no threat to Ron or Judy," Bumblebee stated as he backed away with his hands empty and raised to show he was not arming his cannon or about to attack.

Dissonance paused, his optics shuttering and unshuttering in confusion as Judy stared at Dissonance and Ron demanded "What does he mean, his parents?" and looked around, as if expecting another mech or two to step into view, which may well have been the case.

"Mr and Mrs Witwicky, I believe Dissonance has just become privy to some new information, and Ratchet has formulated a theory based on observed events here, and medical knowledge he is privy to. May I suggest you sit down, all of you, that includes you, Dissonance, and allow me to explain Ratchet's theory. Then you, Dissonance, can tell us the knowledge you've received, and we can see if it tallies. I give my word as an Autobot that I will not attack you or activate my weapons while I am here, and propose that for the four of us here, a ceasefire lasting three joors – that is about nineteen hours, Mr and Mrs Witwicky - should be observed, effective immediately, under the terms of Protocol Five of the Treaty of Iacon."

"Accepted," Dissonance stated. Then: "You are visible and obvious in broad daylight in a populated area. Suggestion: You go into car mode and we go inside you to speak."

"That makes sense," Bumblebee said, folding down into Camaro form. With a feeling of unreality, Ron and Judy walked outside, followed by Dissonance. As Bumblebee opened his doors, Dissonance scrambled into the back seat, leaving the front two seats for Ron and Judy.

Once everyone was comfortably settled down, Bumblebee carefully explained Ratchet's theory to the two humans and the small mech.

 

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"Sir, there is a vehicle approaching the Base, it just crossed the 500-metre perimeter detection ring," Mirage stated in the main control room.

Optimus crossed over. Ratchet and Ironhide had collaborated on the detection sensors; although it would log human cars and flag them on a separate screen, they also had Spark-detection technology so that Cybertronian signals could be identified and the alts compared to those of the known Autobots. Of course this had its shortcomings, the Twins delighted sometimes in coming back with new alt forms, partly to give whoever was manning the detection screen a shock.

"It's shape does not match any of ours, and it's not the Twins, I saw them go into recharge myself half a joor ago," Mirage said. There was a moment's pause as Mirage made a few adjustments. "Sir, it is giving off a signature on a Decepticon wavelength."

"Ironhide, Bluestreak, Ratchet, stand by," Optimus said quietly both to the room and over the comm. As if it had heard him, the vehicle stopped.

"Incoming transmission," Mirage said. He paused again. "Sir, he claims to be Soundwave."

"Curious," murmured Optimus. "Ask him why he is here," he ordered. Mirage nodded.

"Decepticon Soundwave, this is the Autobot base, please state your business and intentions, or we will be forced to take further defensive actions,” stated Mirage. He could have switched to speaker for the response but chose not to; a wise decision when dealing with a mech who had mastered using sound as a weapon.

There were a few moments of silence as Mirage received the reply, a response that left the slender blue and white mech with a perturbed look on his faceplates.

"Acknowledged. I will relay your request and statement to my senior officer," he said, then turned to Optimus.

"Prime, Soundwave is claiming neutral status for himself and all of his cassettes. He has requested a face to face meeting with you, sir." Mirage shuttered his optics twice and shook his head in confusion before speaking again.

"Sir, he says if need be he will surrender under the provisions of the Treaty of Iacon Protocol One, but would prefer to come in under the auspices of Protocols Two and/or Four." Mirage blinked in disbelief once more before he resumed speaking.

"Prime, Soundwave asks that he and his cassettes be granted asylum."

 

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Ron and Judy watched, white-faced, as Dissonance, via Bumblebee's fold-away display screen, played the memories of the Spark-transfer that Soundwave had sent to Dissonance.

Bumblebee had suspected that the images might distress the two humans, had suggested they sit out on viewing the visuals of Soundwave cutting Sam's chest open and collecting the Spark and transferring it to a Cassette, but both the Witwickys had refused.

"He's already dead, nothing can be worse than that," Judy had stated, and Ron had backed her up. Bumblebee had then pleaded with them to go inside the house but they had refused.

"We are not getting out of here until we've seen what this one has to show us," said Ron, and Judy nodded. Both were still in shock about the theory, and Dissonance's spoken confirmation, neither had yet acknowledged the theory as possibly true, but that was only to be expected, it was a lot to take in.

 

Bumblebee had given in and run the images, and, as he had suspected, they _were_ upsetting for the parents. Judy wept into her hands, Ron sat there white-faced, his jaw clenched and his body shaking. However both watched the images, both read the communications between Dissonance and Soundwave on the subject of the memories.

"So…from what you have said and Ratchet has theorised, you are our Sam, but without all his memories, in a mechanical body," Judy said. "I hope you forgive me for still having my doubts, but I'm going to need time to take all of this in." Ron nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Bumblebee said "Please give me a moment: I am receiving a transmission from the Base." He paused, then said "I've been recalled, it appears Soundwave has turned up, but I'm being given no more details except that they need me there." He flicked his doors open. "Perhaps you should go back inside and wait for me."

"Soundwave? He's the one who transferred Sam, isn't he?" asked Judy.

"That is correct," Bumblebee said uncertainly.

"Then close those doors, Bumblebee, I am going nowhere except where you are," Judy said. Ron nodded vigorously.

"I'm coming too," he said.

"Mr and Mrs Witwicky, that may not be a good idea, Soundwave is very much an unknown quantity, I cannot guarantee your safety if you decide to complain to him," Bumblebee said, suddenly having a mental hologram of Judy confronting Soundwave with a baseball bat.

"Complain?" Judy said. "I'm still not sure what exactly to make of all this, but I'm not so sure I'll be complaining as such, I might ask him some questions, I might ask him why, but if all you've said is true, it means he saved Sam's life." She paused.

"In which case, I may end up thanking him."

Bumblebee sighed as Ron said "Do as she says, Bumblebee, we both want to come with you."

"So do I," stated Dissonance.

Bumblebee sighted through his vents, and closed his doors.

"Tell Optimus that I'm on my way, Mirage. Could you also inform him that Ron, Judy and Dissonance are insisting on accompanying me?"

 

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After Mirage's statement there was a silence, until Optimus said "Then tell him we accept his request for asylum as long as he consents to having his weapons deactivated upon entry, and that as a neutral, there are places on the Base he is not permitted to go. Apologise for our caution, but explain that we will not take foolish chances." Mirage relayed this almost verbatim, and nodded at the response.

"He has stated – and I quote – 'Terms; acceptable. Caution; logical and expected.'"

"Mirage, call Bumblebee and ask him to report back here," Optimus said.

Optimus contacted Cliffjumper, who was manning the gate. "When Ratchet and Ironhide get into the courtyard, drop the force-field, open the gates, and let Soundwave enter."

"Uh – yes sir," Cliffjumper said. Optimus heard the reluctance, suspicion and scepticism in the sometimes aggressive young mech, but let it pass this time. 

 

Ironhide and Ratchet headed out to the courtyard, a few minutes later Ratchet confirmed that he was taking Soundwave to the medbay where his weapons would be deactivated. Once that had been done, Optimus would speak to Soundwave, and then he might find out what was going on.

Then Mirage informed Optimus that Bumblebee was heading to Base as requested, but with three unexpected passengers. Dissonance was no problem, he would obey Soundwave, but he was not sure about having Ron and Judy about with Soundwave in the Base, especially as he was still uncertain of the mech's real intentions and agenda. However, he would have to deal with it, as he knew that Judy in particular could be formidable and stubborn when it came to getting her own way.

Ten minutes later, Optimus was informed that Soundwave's weapons were deactivated, and that Soundwave had repeated his request to speak to Optimus. He rose and went to the med bay.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to KDZeal FanfictionDOTnet) for beta-reading this chapter, pointing out a repetition, helping the commas and periods I unintentionally abuse, and preventing my Soundwave from sounding like a babbling idiot...:)

Too Useful To Waste.

Chapter Thirteen.

 

Three-quarters of the distance to be covered from the Witwicky household to the Autobot base was along a fairly busy stretch of road, so Ron had to at least _look_ as though he were driving. As such he could not turn around to speak to Dissonance in the back seat, though Judy of course had no such problem. As such, she had been discussing memories he recalled as a human, and talking about things they used to do, and halfway through the journey had reached her hand between Bumblebee's front seats to take Dissonance's hand in her own.

She was now convinced that Dissonance had indeed once been her Sam, but could not say what he was now. In some ways he was undeniably her Sam, some of his speech patterns reflected the way Sam used to talk, but in other ways he was different. He would use words or make more precise statements than Sam ever had done, had lost his panicked or nervous repetition of a word. She was fairly confident that it was unlikely that he would ever use the word 'no', repeated over and over again, as she had known him to do as a human, but even some of his mannerisms, like shaking his hands and arms in denial, had stayed the same.

Ron had listened to their conversation but not participated, save for the occasional 'Mm' or grunt to show he was still paying attention to what was being said.

 

They pulled up to the gate of the Autobot base, Bumblebee sent Cliffjumper a request for entry, and drove in once the pearly shimmer of the force field had died and the base gates opened. He opened his doors and the two humans, followed by Dissonance, climbed out and withdrew far back enough to allow Bumblebee to transform. Once he had done so, he felt a tap on his foot. Looking down, he saw it was Dissonance, who had moved back over and was beckoning him down.

Bumblebee crouched, and Dissonance jumped up on to his knee, startling the yellow scout who pulled back. Dissonance had tensed ready for another leap, but seeing Bumblebee's startled reaction to his first leap, relaxed his joints.

"We were friends once, weren't we? You used to lift me up to your face so I could stroke your face. Could you do that again?" he asked.

Bumblebee's optic shutters flickered rapidly in surprise, but he lowered his hands far enough to allow Dissonance to climb into them, as Ron and Judy and even Cliffjumper watched, Cliffjumper with some trepidation, for he had experienced firsthand the havoc Dissonance's concealed blades could wreak.

Dissonance similarly showed no hesitation, climbing into Bumblebee's hands, and Bumblebee lifted the hands slowly to his face. Dissonance was equally slow in reaching out one of his hands to touch the yellow Autobot's face, after all, the last time they had done this Dissonance had been flesh and blood, and it had been well over a year ago.

After the first touch, Dissonance moved closer and, once again as he had once done as a human, pressed his entire body against Bumblebee's face and stroked whatever he could reach. It did, of course, feel different, the body was metal rather than flesh, the warmth that of a Spark rather than that of organic skin, but it was familiar enough to make Bumblebee shutter his optics and purr with pleasure.

A few moments later, Bumblebee moved his hands back down to the ground and Dissonance stepped off.

"I'm sorry to cut this short but we had best go through to the base. Optimus, and Soundwave, will be expecting us," the yellow scout explained.

Dissonance went to stand between the two Witwickys and held his hands out towards theirs. Judy clasped his hand immediately, Ron at first hesitated, and then slowly and awkwardly took Dissonance's hand into his own.

Bumblebee moved forwards into the base, and the odd trio followed behind.

 

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Optimus walked into the med bay to find the mech Soundwave standing impassively in the med bay awaiting his arrival. He didn't seem nervous or intimidated, in fact the way he stood and his closed battle-mask revealed nothing about how he felt. 

Optimus was acutely aware that if Soundwave wished to know his own feelings, no amount of posed body language and battle mask would stop the mech ahead from looking through the upper thoughts of his mind. For all Optimus knew, Soundwave could be reading his thoughts even now. Shaking off the paranoid thought, Optimus stopped at a respectful distance from the blue and silver mech.

 

"Request-asylum," Soundwave stated.

"Request accepted," Optimus said gravely.

"Optimus-has-questions." It was a statement, not a query, and Optimus nodded in reply. Soundwave didn't need to be able to read minds to know that his sudden arrival and unexpected request would activate more than a few curiosity circuits.

"Ask," Soundwave stated, and both Optimus and Ratchet knew that though he had invited questions, Soundwave had given no guarantee of answers. However, they would ask anyway.

"What has prompted you to seek asylum with us?" Optimus asked.

"Soundwave-leaving-Starscream. Starscream-vengeful. Soundwave,-Cassettes,-vulnerable. Seek-asylum-logical," Soundwave stated.

"You've left Starscream? You've left the Decepticons?" asked Ratchet.

"Affirmative."

"Why?" asked Optimus, intrigued, for Soundwave had been one of the founding members of the Decepticons, Megatron's right-hand mech.

Soundwave paused before answering.

"Megatron-gone. AllSpark-gone. Cybertron-gone. Starscream’s-goal-revenge. High-risk-limited-benefit. Conclusion: revenge-not-worth-risk."

"You mean that the reason of the war has changed from power to revenge and you don't think revenge is worth the risk and effort required?" Ratchet asked. Soundwave nodded.

"Affirmative."

"Are you saying you want to become an Autobot?" Optimus asked.

"Negative," was the reply. "Neutrality-chosen-status."

 

Optimus was actually relieved, for if Soundwave had stated that he had wished to join the 'bots, Optimus would have immediately been suspicious. Of course Soundwave could be reading Optimus' mind and giving the answers he knew would reassure the Autobot leader, but it was a chance Optimus had to take; he could not turn Soundwave out in case he was trying to fool him, especially as Soundwave had explained the reasons for his choice and they seemed to make perfect sense.

"Very well, I have no further questions, although I may have more arise as time goes by."

"Expected-and-accepted," Soundwave replied.

"I will call Prowl to come in and refresh your memories of what being a Neutral affords you under the Treaty of Iacon," Optimus stated. Soundwave nodded.

It was at this point that Bumblebee, Dissonance, and the Witwickys entered.

 

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Soundwave's gaze moved to look at them over Optimus' shoulder as they entered: the humans and Cassetticon moved in front of Bumblebee so that Soundwave could see them.

"Dissonance,-return," Soundwave stated. For a moment Dissonance's image seemed to shimmer a little, as his body altered back to the sharper form he'd possessed before scanning the Vespa, then as Soundwave crouched, he scampered up Soundwave's body and arms and allowed himself to enter cassette form, and Soundwave placed him carefully in his chest compartment.

"Why did you do that?" asked Judy. "We've only just found him again and you take him from us again?"

"Recharge-required," Soundwave explained as he straightened back up.

"Soundwave's Cassetticons recharge within his chest," Ratchet explained.

"Will you let him back out once he's rested?" Judy asked.

"Affirmative," Soundwave responded.

"Speaking of which, you may wish to recharge _yourself_ , Soundwave, and have some energon?" Ratchet said.

"Affirmative. Gratitude-expressed. Offer accepted."

 

Soundwave was turning to follow Ratchet when Judy called out again.

"Mister? Um, Mister Soundwave?" she said, stepping towards him.

"Affirmitive?" he asked, the note of query in his voice matching her own.

"Um…I understand that your Dissonance used to be my Sam?" she asked.

"Mrs Witwicky is one of the human boy Samuel Witwicky's co-Creators," Ratchet explained.

"Affirmative," Soundwave said, somehow making the answer a reply to both Judy's query and Ratchet's statement.

"Well…" she paused, getting the impression that Soundwave would not appreciate her grabbing his leg in a hug. "I…you saved Sam's life. Thank you." She inclined her body from the waist and dipped her head in a half-bow.

"Gratitude-accepted,-not-required," he replied.

"Well, thank you anyway," Ron said. Soundwave inclined his head in a nod, then followed Ratchet without further comment.

Optimus decided against telling Ron and Judy that Soundwave's act in transferring Sam's Spark had likely been for his own purposes; leaving them with their illusions was unlikely to cause any problems. He thought it unlikely that Soundwave would feel any need to shatter them.

Optimus offlined his optics and blew his vents out to relieve the tension in his limbs. He had been concerned that the humans might react unpredictably, but they had responded calmly, for humans, in such a situation.

"If I am needed, I will be back in the main control room," He stated. He walked out of the med bay, the last thing he heard being Judy's voice.

"Mister Ratchet, do you have such a thing as any brandy or port around, by any chance? I think, after the day I've had, I'd appreciate a drink."


End file.
